Confusion surrounded the murders of three Israelis yesterday - one a Jewish businessman killed in the Jordanian capital of Amman, the second an Israeli Arab shot dead on a West Bank road, and the third a Jewish settler whose car was ridden with bullets near the Palestinian town of Nablus. A senior Israeli police official also came under fire in the area but his vehicle was not hit.
The body of a 51-year-old diamond dealer, Mr Yitzhak Snir, was discovered outside the home he rented in Amman yesterday morning; he had apparently been murdered there the night before. The Jordanian authorities, while promising Israel that they would mount a thorough investigation, suggested that he might have been the victim of a "settling of scores" among business associates. His family, however, rejected this assertion as absurd, as did Israeli officials. What's more, the Hizbullah movement's television station in Beirut broadcast a claim of responsibility for the killing, which it said it had received from members of an organization called the "Nobles of Jordan," who branded Mr Snir "a Zionist Mossad agent." A second Jordanian militant group also issued a claim of responsibility.
If Mr Snir was indeed killed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, his death would mark the culmination of a series of attacks on Israelis in Jordan in recent months, which have also seen two diplomats slightly wounded. Israel has issued formal warnings to its citizens to stay out of the country. It would also underline the extent to which the conflict is making ever-greater waves throughout the region, including in countries such as Jordan and Egypt which have peace treaties with Israel. Meanwhile in Turkey yesterday, there were violent demonstrations against the government's close ties with Israel.
In a second killing, an Israeli Arab, Mr Wael Ghanem, was ambushed by Palestinian gunmen. Again, different parties ascribed different reasons for the shooting. Israeli officials noted that it took place close to the scene of another shooting, on Sunday night, in which an Israeli woman was killed en route to her home at the settlement of Karnei Shomron, and that Mr Ghanem's car carried Israeli yellow registration plates, so that his killers might have believed they were attacking a Jewish motorist.
Some Palestinian sources claimed that Mr Ghanem was a former West Bank resident who had been relocated to Israel in reward for providing intelligence material to the Israeli security forces. Recent weeks have seen killings of alleged collaborators in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority has arrested dozens of suspects, with several sentenced to death by military tribunals.
Palestinian sources suggested yesterday that President Yasser Arafat might be attempting to turn-up the heat on alleged collaborators to deflect his public's mounting criticism of the Palestinian Authority and its support for Hamas and other militant groups.
Mr Ziyad Abu Ziyad, the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs, said yesterday that the authority was having an increasingly difficult time reining in the militants, and that Israel's policy of assassinating alleged Islamic militant leaders was boosting public support for the Islamists.
An Israeli newspaper yesterday claimed that some authority leaders were already looking for homes overseas, in anticipation of being forced out by the Islamists, or the Israeli. Israel's Defence Minister, Mr Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, meanwhile, was quoted as having assured Mr Arafat that he would take personal responsibility for the Palestinian President's safety.
The third man killed was Zohar Shirgi, 39. He was returning to his home in the Jewish settlement of Yafit in the Jordan valley from Israel last night when he came under fire and lost control of his vehicle before crashing in a ditch. He died instantly.
A senior Israeli police officer also came under fire in the area but escaped injury.