Israeli security sources have admitted that the five Palestinian policemen killed in Monday’s attack in Bitounia, near Ramallah, were “national security men with no terror background,” reported Haaretz newspaper on Tuesday.
The killings triggered an unusually angry tone on the part of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who said that Israel would pay for the killings and described them as "dirty and immoral."
According to Haaretz, Israeli soldiers who carried out the raid were ordered to shoot armed Palestinians near the Bitounia post. The operation was approved by the Israeli army and Defense Minister Benyamin Bin Elezier, and carried out in “retaliation for gunfire attacks carried out from a Force 17 post in the area.”
Israeli security officials admitted that there was no prior information on the identity of the policemen in the post, and that the security men killed “were not from Arafat’s elite presidential guard, Force 17, and had no connection to terror.” – Albawaba.com
