JERUSALEM — The master bomb maker for the militant wing of Hamas was killed by fellow members of the Islamic group in an internal power struggle, Palestinian officials declared Monday, exonerating Israel of involvement in his death.
An investigating committee has identified the killer and some of the accomplices in the death of Mohiedin Sharif, said Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Authority Cabinet minister and peace negotiator. "They are people inside Hamas. They are very close to Sharif," Shaath told reporters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Palestinian officials said that five members of Hamas' Iziddin al-Qassam military wing are under arrest in connection with last week's killing and that a sixth was still at large.
Hamas rejected the findings as "lies" and renewed threats to avenge Sharif's death. "They told us the same story they gave to the media, which is that they arrested five Hamas people who are behind the assassination of Sharif," Abdulaziz Rantisi, a Hamas political leader, said after Palestinian officials briefed him on the investigation in Gaza City. "We told them that this is an unacceptable story."
The clandestine Hamas military wing, meanwhile, delivered a leaflet to news agencies saying, "We reiterate to our people that the martyr's blood will not be wasted."
Sharif's body was discovered next to an exploded Fiat in an industrial zone of Ramallah on March 29. Palestinian officials publicly identified him Wednesday and said that he had been shot to death three hours before the explosion.
Hamas and officials of the Palestinian Authority, including Shaath, quickly blamed Israel, whose agents killed Yehiya Ayash, Sharif's predecessor, with an exploding telephone in 1996 and tried to kill a Hamas political leader in Jordan last year. Ayash's death was answered with four Hamas suicide bombings that killed scores of Israelis in less than two weeks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had categorically denied any involvement by his government in Sharif's death, called Monday's announcement "a positive development" proving Israel's innocence.
"It is regrettable that senior officials in the Palestinian Authority hastened to blame Israel. This is a thing which still could have serious implications," he said, adding that the arrests demonstrated that "if the Palestinian Authority wants to, it can fight terrorism."
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