Assassinate Attempt on Israeli Minister’s Life

Police sources report that the Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, 75, was shot three times at close range in the corridor of his hotel room at the Hyatt Hotel on French Hill in Jerusalem, as he came up from breakfast shortly before 7 am. His wife found him lying unconscious on the floor. Two bullets entered his head, believed to have come from a silenced gun. Hadassah doctors are fighting for his life.
Police immediately closed all the hotel exits and interrogated guests and staff, many of whom are Arabs, although the assassin or assassins were most certainly gone. The hotel abuts on Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Ramallah is only five minutes drive away.
The Shin Beit ordered all government ministers not to leave their homes. Zeevi, a longtime combat general before he found his hardline Moledeth (Homeland) party, consistently refuses bodyguards and defies Shin Beit guidelines for his safety, refusing to change his way of life as a citizen. A few days ago, all Israeli ministers were directed to refrain from attending pre-publicized events. The extremist PFLP, whose headquarters are in Damascus, took responsibility for the attempted murder in a statement to the French News Agency. The group claims it was in revenge for Israeli’s liquidation of its leader, Abu Ali Mustafa in Ramallah last month.
Two days ago, the stricken minister resigned from the government with his co-minister Infrastructure minister Avigdor Lieberman in protest over a long list of relaxations granted by the Sharon unity government of restrictions against Palestinian areas. Palestinian violence. The resignation was to have taken effect Wednesday noon.
Last week, Dr. Haim Salomon, 45, an Israeli resident of French Hill, which is bounded by Palestinian areas, was murdered in his home in circumstances that Jerusalem Police refuse to reveal. He too was shot as he entered his apartment.