Under a cloud of secrecy, Israel expelled yesterday two Palestinians in blindfolds from the West Bank and left them at a deserted Gaza Strip fig orchard in the first deportation of relatives of terrorist suspects.
Yasser Arafat denounced the precedent-setting expulsions as a “crime against humanity” – and was joined in criticism by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The deportation of siblings Kifah and Intisar Ajouri came a day after Israel’s Supreme Court said there was enough evidence of their complicity in a homicide bombing planned by their brother, Ali, to justify their removal from the West Bank for two years.
Israeli officials announced Tuesday they would deport the siblings but took elaborate steps to elude Palestinian officials and reporters. They drove the Ajouris in two armored personnel carriers through back roads to the Netzarim junction leading into the Gaza Strip.
A decoy convoy was sent to the main Erez entrance to Gaza – where the Palestinian Authority had warned it would not accept the deportees if they arrived.
Intisar, 34, said she was blindfolded, had her hands bound and was told to keep her head down during the 20-minute drive from a West Bank detention center.
“Suddenly they took us out of the tanks and freed our hands, and we found ourselves in the middle of a fig and grape farm,” she said, adding they walked until they found a farmer.
“He told us we were in a very dangerous place where four Palestinians were killed last week. The farmer told us, ‘Hurry, hurry, before they shoot you,’ ” she said.
The Ajouris, who had lived in a refugee camp near Nablus, were given more than $200 in what Israeli officials called “adjustment” money, as well as food and bottled water, to start a new life in Gaza.
Intisar was bitter about her treatment.
“Gaza is part of my homeland Palestine,” she told reporters. “But this does not justify taking me away from my family to be deported to an area where I know nobody.”
The Israel court cited evidence that Intisar had sewn explosive belts and Kifah had scouted targets for the July 17 bombing that killed five people.
Yesterday, Annan joined U.S. and European officials in criticizing the Israeli policy.
“Such transfers are strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law and could have very serious political and security implications,” said Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard.
With Post Wire Services