Middle East Gunned Down in Tunis

By Jill Smolowe

Khalil al-Wazir was sitting in the study of his comfortable home outside Tunis reading field reports when the muffled fire of submachine guns mounted with silencers disturbed the early morning quiet. Instinctively, al-Wazir drew his pistol. But the gesture was futile. The intruders, a commando unit of seven men and one woman, had already killed al-Wazir's Tunisian driver and two Palestinian bodyguards. Then, with the brutal efficiency of a well-trained hit squad, they turned their fire on al-Wazir and riddled his body with a prolonged spray of bullets. Al-Wazir, 52, Yasser Arafat's most trusted lieutenant, who was known worldwide by his nom de guerre, Abu Jihad, was dead.

The slaying of al-Wazir last Saturday shocked the Palestinian community and prompted a fresh wave of violence in the already besieged occupied territories. In Gaza, where al-Wazir had lived as a teenager, there were protests and memorial services for the slain official of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Seven Palestinians were killed and scores wounded in clashes with Israeli soldiers. In the West Bank the scene was somewhat less violent but no less angry. Palestinians flew black flags and crowded the mosques to read commemorative phrases from the Koran. Still, tensions resulted in five deaths, making last Saturday's total death toll of at least twelve the highest daily count since the Palestinian uprisings began last December. Confronted by growing demonstrations and stone-throwing youths, the Israeli army imposed curfews on eight more refugee camps.

Several Palestinian leaders immediately blamed the Israelis for the assassination. Bassam Abu Sharif, the spokesman for P.L.O. Chairman Arafat, charged that Israeli leaders, frustrated by their inability to quell the Palestinian uprisings, had decided to "liquidate" senior P.L.O. members. Arafat, on a tour of the gulf states in search of support for the protest activities, was described as badly shaken by the slaying of his heir apparent.

Initially, the Israelis refused to either confirm or deny an Israeli connection to al-Wazir's assassination. "Do not ask me, and I'll not have to tell you lies," a high-ranking Israeli intelligence official said. But according to TIME's Middle East correspondents, the entire operation was carried out by a commando unit of 30 members of the Israeli Defense Forces. After crossing the Mediterranean in a large vessel, the commandos switched to a dinghy to make their way ashore. In Tunisia they were met by three men carrying Lebanese passports who provided two Volkswagen vans and a Peugeot 305. Dressed in camouflage uniforms designed to resemble the Tunisian National Guard, the commandos drove to al-Wazir's house, staged the hit, then returned to the vessel.

The Israelis made no attempt to disguise their relief that al-Wazir's career had come to an end. "I do not know who killed him, but I do not regret the fact that someone did it," said a government official. "After all he did to us, he deserved it." A founding member of Fatah, al-Wazir was second only to Arafat in the military arm of the P.L.O. He dispatched the first Fatah squad in 1965 to sabotage Israel's main water project, and has been in charge of planning and coordinating military operations inside Israel since 1973.

Al-Wazir has been associated with two particularly brutal attacks: the 1975 takeover of the Savoy Hotel in Tel Aviv, which resulted in 18 deaths, and a 1978 coastal raid that left a trail of 45 dead bodies from Haifa to Tel Aviv. He is also believed to have helped direct the uprising in the occupied territories. Israeli authorities pointed an accusing finger at al-Wazir last March, following the hijacking of a bus in southern Israel that claimed the lives of three Israeli civilians. At the time, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir vowed, "Our hand will bring to justice those who are responsible."

Even as tensions heightened between the Israelis and Palestinians, there were some intriguing developments in Moscow. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev told Arafat two weeks ago that there would be no peace in the region until the P.L.O. took Israel's security requirements into account -- unusually tough instructions to a man who has refused to publicly acknowledge Israel's right to exist. Several days later, reports surfaced that Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze would soon visit Syria, Jordan and possibly Egypt. Rumors flew about a stopover in Israel, but the absence of diplomatic relations between the two countries make such a visit unlikely.

In the occupied territories, al-Wazir is certain to be hailed as a martyr. Though his military duties made him responsible for some of Fatah's bloodiest acts, he was widely perceived as a moderate within the P.L.O. The soft-spoken guerrilla leaves behind a wife, five children and a young generation of frustrated Palestinians who, inspired by al-Wazir's death, can be expected to resort to new acts of violence.

With reporting by Ron Ben-Yishai/Jerusalem and Dean Fischer/Amman