Israeli Secret Police Officer Shot to Death

BEITOUNIA, Israeli-Occupied West Bank —  Arab gunmen killed an Israeli secret police officer and wounded two others in an ambush in the West Bank on Sunday, the Israeli army said.

“A General Security Services (commonly known as Shin Bet secret police) man, Noam Cohen, was killed this afternoon, and two other workers of the service were wounded,” an army spokeswoman said.

“During a GSS operation this afternoon in the center of Ramallah, there was shooting from an ambush at the GSS personnel who were in a vehicle,” she said.

A caller to an international news agency said Qassem, the military wing of the Muslim fundamentalist group Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We send this military operation as congratulations to the Palestinian people on (the Muslim holy month of) Ramadan,” the caller said.

Military sources had earlier said the incident occurred at the Beitounia junction in the Ramallah area.

Shortly after the shooting, a man with his face drenched in blood was seen by reporters just outside Beitounia being evacuated by ambulance. Beitounia itself was crowded with troops.

The army said it believed that at least three guerrillas armed with automatic weapons took part in the close-up attack on the Shin Bet men.

The Israelis returned fire, but the gunmen escaped. The army immediately slapped a curfew on the area and conducted wide searches. Israeli military censors prevented full publication of the details for more than four hours.

The last time a Shin Bet man was killed was in January, 1993, when assailants bludgeoned and stabbed to death an agent while he was waiting for an informant in a Jerusalem apartment.