An Israeli minister has said that Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat and his "gang of murderers", including his lieutenant Mr Marwan Barghuti, should be put to death.
Minister without portfolio Mr Effi Eitam, leader of the extreme-right National Religious Party, was speaking on public radio after being quoted by the Maarivnewspaper making similar remarks in a speech in a Tel Aviv synagogue.
Mr Eitam said Mr Barghuti, who was detained by Israeli troops in Ramallah in mid-April on suspicion of involvement in anti-Israeli attacks, should have been on Israel's list of militants to be eliminated.
"He deserves death, but we brought him to Israel and are now obliged to concern ourselves with his legal status ... Arafat and his gang of murderers, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Israelis, deserve death," Mr Eitam said.
Maarivquoted him demanding to know why Mr Barghuti was being held for questioning. "He should be taken into a field and a bullet put in his head."
Mr Eitam is a former general whose party is considered the voice of Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories.
He wants to become prime minister and sweep away the Jerusalem mosques marking Islam's third holiest site to rebuild the Jewish temple destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans.
AFP