Israeli Lawyer Working With Palestinians Hacked to Death

JERUSALEM —  A 32-year-old Israeli lawyer working with Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip on economic development was stabbed and hacked to death Sunday by two masked men, apparently members of a radical guerrilla group, after meeting community leaders in Gaza City, said a military spokesman there.

Ian Feinberg, the attorney for Cooperation for Development, an aid project financed by the European Community, was killed despite pleas to spare him as one of a small band of courageous Israelis working for peace in the occupied territories.

Nibras Bsaso, a community leader and the Gaza coordinator for Cooperation for Development, said she begged the guerrillas, who were armed with AK-47 assault rifles as well as with knives, axes and lead pipes, to spare Feinberg, arguing that he was helping Gaza residents to begin a much-needed program of economic development and to deal with the military government.

But Bsaso said she was beaten by the gunmen and thrown from the group’s headquarters onto the front lawn of the building and that the two then fired two bursts from their AK-47s to prevent others from rescuing Feinberg.

The Red Eagles, a Marxist guerrilla group associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack in notes to journalists in Gaza.

The killing appears likely to have far-reaching political consequences. Feinberg was the attorney not only for Cooperation for Development, which finances community projects in Gaza, but also for other charitable and development organizations working in the strife-torn region.

“He was a man who helped, a man who cared, a man who worked with our Palestinian people--really a very good man,” Bsaso said.

But Bsaso said she could not identify Feinberg’s assailants--not from their rhetorical slogans or their denunciations of his work. “They were men from hell--absolutely mad,” she said. “They was nothing we could do to prevent them from killing Ian.”

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian leaders, most of whom are abroad in connection with the Arab-Israeli peace talks.

The attack took place near the European Community’s Gaza office, close to police barracks and the Israeli military courthouse, the army spokesman said. A doctor arrived quickly but was unable to resuscitate Feinberg.