Notorious Palestinian Terrorist Assassinated

Yehiya Ayyash, the elusive bombing mastermind who has topped Israel’s most-wanted list for three years, was reported killed Friday when a booby-trapped cellular phone exploded in his ear, Palestinian and Israeli intelligence sources said.

Ayyash, who was known as “Mehandess” (“The Engineer”), was believed responsible for a wave of bloody suicide bombings over the past three years that killed some 70 people - but he had slipped through Israeli fingers time and again. Friday, the sources said, he was killed at this muddy Palestinian refugee camp, where he apparently had been been hiding out.

Palestinians immediately blamed Israel for the assassination and members of the radical Islamic group Hamas vowed revenge for what they called a cowardly act. Israeli officials refused to acknowledge any role in the killing but expressed satisfaction that it had occurred. No one else claimed responsibility for the reported killing.

“I was very, very happy to hear Yehiya Ayyash was dead,” said Gideon Ezra, a former deputy head of Israel’s Shin Bet security force, who had spent much of his time hunting for Ayyash.

“He was the most important terrorist, responsible for killing more than 50 Jews. I’m only sorry Prime Minister (Yitzhak) Rabin couldn’t be alive to see this happen.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Ehud Barak said he believed Ayyash’s death would save lives in the long run.

The following fields overflowed: DATELINE = BIET LAHIA REFUGEE CAMP, GAZA STRIP