Mideast - AFP
Israeli killed in east Jerusalem was Arab Christian
Date: Sat, Mar 20, 2004
JERUSALEM (AFP) - A young man shot to death in Jerusalem by Palestinian militants was an Arab Israeli Christian, police and family said.
George Khoury, 20, was a student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, according to his father, Elias, a well-known lawyer in east Jerusalem.
He was gunned down Friday by militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites)'s Fatah (news - web sites) party, as he was jogging in the French Hill neighborhood in north Jerusalem.
Khoury's grandfather, Dawd, was himself killed in a Palestinian bombing in west Jerusalem's Zion Square in a 1975 incident that cost the lives of 13 more people.
Commenting on his son's death, Elias Khoury said Saturday that "to target innocent civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinian, is a criminal act and should be stopped.
"Such incidents are an attack on the interests of the Palestinians and damage their cause."
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said in a statement received by AFP that the attack was a "response to incursion operations and campaigns of arrests and murders carried out by the Israeli army."
After Khoury was identified, the group issued an apology.
"We regret the death of George Khoury," a caller claiming to represent the group told AFP by telephone. "An error was committed, because (Khoury) was taken taken to be a Jewish settler.
"We consider him a martyr," the caller added, saying "we present our condolences to the family."
Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner told AFP the "attack is part of persistent efforts on the part of all Palestinian organizations and Yasser Arafat's Fatah to intensify terrorist activities against Israel."
The death brought the toll since the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to 3,855 people, including 2,890 Palestinians and 896 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
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