Palestinians Kill 3 Arabs Accused of Aiding Israelis

JERUSALEM —  Palestinians killed three fellow Arabs overnight, including a prostitute, in a growing clandestine war against “collaborators” accused of helping Israel’s secret police, Palestinian sources said today.

Underground leaders of a 16-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation, backed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, have called in leaflets for the punishment of unrepentant collaborators. At least 25 suspects have been killed during the revolt.

Overnight, masked assailants stabbed to death Nadira Zuhdi al Boulus, 43, and left her mutilated body in an abandoned building in the West Bank city of Nablus, Arab journalists there said.

They said the woman, a known prostitute, had been seen working for Israel’s Shin Bet security service and had tried to recruit young girls to act as informers.

Israel’s Army Radio said local activists went to her house, demanded that she confess and took her away.

In Gaza City, a group of assailants shot and killed Fika Ayad, 52, and her son Kamal, 16, at their home after the family resisted their attempts to take away a daughter, Afaf Ayad, 25, accused of cooperating with Shin Bet.

Afaf and two other brothers were shot and wounded in the incident, hospital officials said.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Motti Amihai told reporters Monday before the latest attacks: “We know of at least 15 attempts by Palestinians to kill other Palestinians for political reasons in the last two weeks alone.”

The latest leaflet of the PLO-backed Unified Leadership of the Uprising sets April 26 as a “day to punish collaborators.”