US veto gives Israel licence to kill - Palestinians

Palestinians accused the United States yesterday of granting Israel a licence to kill by vetoing UN condemnation of its assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Israeli forces, taking action after the Islamic militant group said it would launch "earthquake-like" attacks to avenge Yassin's death, killed two Hamas frogmen who came ashore overnight near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians denounced the US veto and 10,000 people demonstrated in the West Bank to protest Yassin's killing.

"I'm afraid this US veto will be taken by Israel as encouragement to continue on the path of violence and escalation, assassinations and reoccupation (of Palestinian territory)," cabinet minister Saeb Erekat told Reuters.

Hamas political leader Mohammad Ghazal, calling the United States the "chairman of the axis of evil in the world", said the UN Security Council veto was "Israel's green light to carry out assaults and crimes".

A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Deheisha refugee camp near the West Bank town of Bethlehem during a confrontation between the army and stone-throwers protesting Yassin's killing, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israeli military sources said Palestinians threw stones and concrete blocks at an army jeep patrolling the area. A Palestinian threw a petrol bomb at it and a roadside bomb nearby exploded simultaneously, igniting the vehicle.

The soldiers then evacuated the jeep and opened fire at the Palestinian, the sources said.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, a car exploded, killing a 22-year-old militant who was apparently rigging it as a bomb.

At the United Nations Security Council, the United States blocked a resolution by Arab nations late on Thursday intended to censure Israel for assassinating Hamas's wheelchair-bound founder in a missile strike outside a Gaza mosque.

Washington, alone among major powers in not condemning Monday's assassination as an extrajudicial killing, rejected the resolution because it did not also denounce Hamas for suicide bombings in Israel. The vote was 11 in favour, three abstentions, and the United States veto that killed the measure.

"Israel's action has escalated tensions in Gaza and the region, and could set back our effort to resume progress towards peace," US Ambassador John Negroponte said in a statement.

But he added: "This Security Council does nothing to contribute to a peaceful settlement when it condemns one party's actions and turns a blind eye to everything else occurring in the region."

An Israeli government official in Jerusalem welcomed the US veto but expressed disappointment at the proposed resolution. "We are troubled by this cynical attempt to condemn those who are fighting terrorism without denouncing the terrorists themselves," he said.

Violence in Gaza has surged since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stunned friend and foe alike in February with a plan to withdraw troops and Jewish settlers from Gaza.

Mr Sharon and US President George W. Bush will meet on April 14 in the United States in a bid to complete details of the Gaza withdrawal, people involved in the deliberations said yesterday.

In Tehran, 5,000 people marched to protest the assassination, chanting "Death to Israel, death to America".

Worshippers at Friday prayers in the Gaza mosque where Yassin had prayed minutes before his assassination wept and demanded revenge as they looked upon the empty spot where the paralysed 67-year-old cleric used to sit in his wheelchair.

Israel has vowed to kill more militants it sees as the masterminds behind suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis during a nearly 3-1/2 year Palestinian uprising.

Ali al-Barghouthi, a leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group, part of Arafat's Fatah faction, said: "If we don't take revenge, Sharon will go even further in his aggression until he assassinates the president."