Spare women, children: Arafat

2003-05-25 11:49

Cairo - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has urged would-be suicide bombers not to kill Israeli civilians, saying it was "inadmissible to kill a child or a woman in a restaurant", an Arabic newspaper reported on Sunday.

The remarks that appeared in the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat were his most explicit yet denouncing the suicide bombings against civilians in Israel, though without being the blanket condemnation Israel seeks.

In what he described as a message to "young people ready to blow themselves up", Arafat was quoted as repeating his longheld stand that "we oppose violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians".

He then specified what he meant by civilians.

"The struggle against occupation is legitimate and I mean 'soldiers of the occupation'. It is inadmissible to kill a child or a woman in a restaurant or a cafe," he added.

- AFX