‘Israel killed Yasser Arafat,’ Claims Palestinian Inquiry

The death anniversary of iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat brings back claims that Israel is responsible for his death in November 2004.

Tawfiq Tirawi, the head of a Palestinian team probing into Arafat’s death, claims Arafat was murdered in France. The claim comes two months after a French court dismissed such claims, bringing no charges. Suha Arafat, the leader’s widow, is appealing the September ruling.

Tirawi, however, says the probe opened in 2009 considers that Israel is responsible for Arafat’s death. “We still need some time to elucidate the exact circumstances of this assassination,” Arab News quoted him as saying. “The inquiry committee has been able to identify the assassin of former president Yasser Arafat.”

The Palestinian leader was 75 when he died in 2004. He developed stomach pain at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. He was taken to the Hôpital d'instruction des armées Percy in Clamart, France and eventually died there. An inquiry started after Suha lodged a complaint at a French court in 2012, claiming that he was assassinated.

This is not the first time Israel has been accused of killing Arafat. Israel denied such claims in 2012 when it was reported that Arafat might have been poisoned.

"All of a sudden, Suha's checking her wash basket and discovered clothes that weren't washed for eight years," Deputy Spokesman of Israeli Foreign Ministry Paul Hirschson told Xinhua. "Suddenly, out of nowhere a couple of garments turn up; we test them, and presto! There's Polonium,”

Meanwhile, dozens of Palestinians are reported to have been injured in clashes with Israeli forces on Arafat’s death anniversary. Israeli security forces used live bullets and tear gas against Palestinian youths who threw burned tires and threw stones at them, RT reported.