Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's assassin admitted last week that he has failed to kill the peace process.

Yigal Amir, who is barred from talking to reporters, allowed a Washington Post reporter to listen in on a phone conversation with his mother. Amir also said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deserved to lose Monday's election for having kept the peace agreements that Rabin negotiated.

Settler leader quits after Likud defeat

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Jewish settler leader Pinchas Wallerstein resigned as chairman of the Settlers Council this week.

Wallerstein said that Jewish residents of the West Bank bore responsibility for the fall of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas leader offers mixed views on Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The spiritual leader of Hamas suggested for the first time this week that he might recognize Israel's right to exist.

"Let's end this conflict by declaring a temporary cease-fire," Sheik Ahmed Yassin said in an interview published Monday in USA Today.

But Yassin did not completely change his militant rhetoric, saying in the same interview, "It makes no difference to us who wins the Israeli elections. They are all our enemies, just two sides of the same coin."

Yassin adopted a similar tone during an interview the same day with the Reuters news agency, saying continued terror attacks would not "depend on whether Likud or Labor are in power."

Construction firms start at Har Homa

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli construction firms on Sunday started preparations for building homes at a controversial Jewish housing project in a southeastern Jerusalem neighborhood.

Initial groundbreaking at Har Homa in March 1997 led to a nearly two-year suspension of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israelis, Palestinians mark Jerusalem Day

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Jerusalem to the Western Wall on Thursday of last week to mark the 32nd anniversary of the reunification of the city.

Among the special events scheduled for Jerusalem Day was a parade through the downtown area featuring flag-bearing marchers from around the world and a memorial ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery for those killed in the battle for Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Increased numbers of police were stationed around the eastern half of the city to maintain order.

Israeli security forces clashed with Palestinian demonstrators in several incidents in the West Bank on the same day. Near Hebron, six Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops to disperse demonstrations against the construction of an industrial zone there.

Three Israeli border police were also wounded. In a separate incident, Palestinians stoned Israelis laying foundations for mobile homes near a settlement.

Terror bombs wound Israeli soldier, officer

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An officer and a member of an Israeli army commando unit were wounded last week in the West Bank by explosives believed planted by terrorists.

The two were taking part in an exercise when they tripped off the explosion in an army training field.

During the past two weeks, two pipe bombs were found near the West Bank settlement of Efrat and at the Har Homa building site in southeastern Jerusalem.

Israeli hiker released by Colombian rebels

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israeli hiker taken hostage by a Marxist group from Colombia was released last Friday after 2-1/2 weeks in captivity.

Elad Lichtenberg, 24, had been kidnapped in Santiago, Chile, along with two other travelers of British and Swiss nationality.