(BBC) - Orla Guerin Growing numbers of Palestinians are being hunted down and killed - not by the Israeli army but by their own friends and neighbors. Palestinian human rights workers say more than 70 suspected collaborators have died in vigilante killings over the past three years. The local commander of the Al-Aqsa Brigades in Tulkarm, Abu Amsha, told us, "We put them on their knees. We fired at their heads and then at their bodies. That's how Mohammed and Samir were executed." Mohammed's family claims he was tortured into making a confession in the 21 days that he was held. "Mohammed was in the Al-Aqsa Brigades with these other guys. Then he got promoted and they got jealous - that's why they killed him," says Mohammed's mother, Masoosa. The men of the Al-Aqsa Brigades told us they are "investigating another collaborator and that he'll probably be dead within days."
2003-11-05 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive