Israel behind Arafat 'assassination': Palestinian inquiry

By i24news 

Comments came on eve of 11th anniversary of Arafat's death; dozens of Palestinians injured in clashes

The head of the Palestinian team looking into the death of Yasser Arafat on Tuesday again accused Israel of assassinating the iconic Palestinian leader in a Paris hospital.

His comments came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Arafat's death and two months after French judges closed an investigation into claims he was murdered, without bringing any charges.

"The inquiry committee has been able to identify the assassin of former president Yasser Arafat," said Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of the probe opened in 2009.

"Israel is responsible," he said, without giving further details other than to add that "we still need some time to elucidate the exact circumstances of this assassination".

A Palestinian official said that dozens of Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers.

Health ministry spokesman Mohammed Awawdeh said 25 Palestinians were hit by "live fire," while Israeli military sources said that Palestinians rolled burning tires and threw rocks at troops stationed nearby.

Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

His widow Suha lodged a complaint at a court in France in 2012, claiming that her husband was assassinated, sparking an inquiry.

The same year, Arafat's tomb in Ramallah was opened for a few hours allowing three teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect around 60 samples.

Many Palestinians believe that Israel poisoned Arafat and the Palestinian probe into his death has accused the Jewish state of assassinating him before -- a charge Israel flatly denies.

A center in the Swiss city of Lausanne had tested biological samples taken from Arafat's personal belongings given to his widow after his death, and found "abnormal levels of polonium" -- an extremely radioactive toxin, but stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by polonium.

French experts "maintain that the polonium-210 and lead-210 found in Arafat's grave and in the samples are of an environmental nature," Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said.

The reevaluation of earlier data "disproves the hypothesis of an acute ingestion of polonium-210 in the days preceding the appearance of symptoms," she said.

The French inquiry into the death of the Nobel Prize winner closed their case in September without bringing any charges, as did a previous Russian probe.

Suha Arafat is appealing the French decision.

(with AFP)

http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/92123-151111-israel-behind-arafat-assassination-palestinian-inquiry