November 19, 1995
Web posted at: 12:20 p.m. EST (1720 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A three-man panel set up by the Israeli
government to investigate the assassination of Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin began closed-door hearings Sunday amid reports
that a man close to the killer was an informant for the Shin
Bet secret service. The panel is expected to focus on
security blunders by Shin Bet that allowed confessed assassin
Yigal Amir to get within point-blank range of Rabin after a
peace rally.
According to several news reports, Avishai Raviv, leader of an extremist anti-Rabin group, had been a Shin Bet informant for at least two years. Raviv, who was detained the day after the November 4 murder but later was released on bail, denies being a government agent.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli cabinet agreed to set up a
special task force to crack down on Jewish extremists.
Acting Prime Minister Shimon Peres also ordered government
ministers to stop talking about the case, saying public
statements would only hamper investigations. Some government
officials blamed each other for leaking information to the
press.
JENIN, West Bank (CNN) -- Yasser Arafat got a hero's welcome Sunday in the West Bank city of Jenin, now under Palestinian control. Israeli troops completed their withdrawal from Jenin last Monday as part of an agreement calling for a handover of six West Bank cities and nearly 500 villages to Palestinian authority by the end of the year.
Thousands of whistling and clapping people turned out to greet Arafat, who told them they had been "liberated" under a peace deal with Israel that no assassin's bullet could kill. Protected by hundreds of bodyguards, Arafat spent four hours in Jenin. It was his third trip to the West Bank from his base in Gaza since self-rule began.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- Government troops continuing their push to crush resistance in the heart of rebel territory reported Sunday at least 160 people -- both rebels and government soldiers -- were killed in fresh fighting in the northern and eastern part of the island.
CNN's Jackie Shymanski reported from Colombo, the capital, that the military had not yet taken control of Jaffna, unofficial capital of the independent homeland the rebels are seeking for minority Tamils. (160K AIFF sound or 160K WAV sound)
State radio said troops, who had thrust to within 800 meters (half a mile) of the center of Jaffna in a monthlong offensive, repulsed a fierce rebel counterattack with air and artillery strikes. Air force planes destroyed several camps of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the radio reported. But the guerrillas struck back with a fierce counterattack in eastern Sri Lanka, killing 38 government soldiers in an ambush. Since 1983 the civil war has claimed 50,000 lives.
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