PALESTINIAN and Israeli security agents are hunting desperately for a 22 year old Hamas Islamic radical, who they fear is beat on carrying out a suicide bombing against an Israeli target within the next few days.
The wanted man is a student from the West Bank's Najah University who has been living in the Gaza Strip for the past year, and who was apparently trained by Yihiya Ayash, the chief Hamas bomb maker assassinated in his Gaza hideout earlier this month. Israeli and Palestinian sources say the potential bomber is seeking to avenge Ayash's death, and to disrupt the run up to Saturday's Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israeli and Palestinian intelligence sources believe the bomber intends to strike at a target in either Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, both cities where bombers sent by Ayash have staged suicide attacks in the past two years.
Hamas, which opposes the Palestinian autonomy process with Israel, is urging an election boycott. According to the intelligence sources, the radical Islamic group is also planning attacks in Palestinian controlled areas there have been warnings that Mr Jimmy Carter, the former US president due here to supervise the voting might be targeted, and he is to be accompanied by a squad of bodyguards.
Fears of an upsurge in violence in the days before the vote were heightened yesterday afternoon, when an Israeli was shot in the face on the edge of Palestinian controlled Bethlehem.
In the Hebron area, where the Israeli army remains in control, meanwhile, there were angry scuffles between troops and Jewish settlers when the army forcibly evacuated dozens of squatters from a neighbourhood in the Kiryat Arba settlement. The squatters, 29 of whom were arrested, had rejected offers of alternative housing elsewhere in the settlement.
The army carried out the evictions because it needed the homes as temporary accommodation ford its own soldiers, who are redeploying to new bases and installations Nevertheless, troops will still be stationed in Hebron on election day, to safeguard the 450 settlers who live in the heart of the city.
All other West Bank cities are now controlled by Mr Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority. The continued presence of the Israeli troops in Hebron has meant that cynicism about the elections is at its highest there, and that up to half the Palestinians registered toe vote in Hebron may well boycott the polling booths.
David Horovitz is managing editor of the Jerusalem Report
AFP adds Syria toughened its' tone against Israel yesterday, reversing weeks of growing optimism by accusing the Jewish state of endangering their next round of peace negotiations.
"Israel is responsible for the loss of time and bears the blame for any eventual failure of the next negotiations," the daily paper of the ruling party, AI Baath, warned.