A PALESTINIAN man entered the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv last night demanding political asylum and taking a number of hostages before being shot and wounded by embassy security guards.
The man, named as Nadim Injaz, was reported to have been hurt but not seriously.
After entering the embassy, Mr Injaz threatened to burn down the building and to “kill any Jews” who entered the premises.
Turkish diplomats questioned him for more than four hours before he limped out of the embassy handcuffed and accompanied by Turkish embassy staff, an Israeli policeman and a paramedic. An ambulance evacuated him to hospital.
Israel’s Channel 2 television broadcast a telephone interview with Mr Injaz from inside the embassy. Sounding emotional, he denounced “the murderous Jews”, the “murderous Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas” and other corrupt Palestinian leaders whom he said were stealing money from the Palestinian people. He urged Turkey to save him.
An Israeli-Arab lawyer who spoke to Mr Injaz by phone to try to calm him down said the Palestinian had held the Turkish consul-general and his wife hostage for some two hours. They managed to escape after Turkish security officers shot Mr Injaz, who was armed with a gun and a knife.
The incident does not appear to have been related to tensions between Israel and Turkey following the May 31st Israeli naval commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, during which nine Turkish activists were killed.
The gunman, a resident of the West Bank city of Ramallah, claims he used to work as a collaborator for the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence agency, but Israeli officials denied his story.
He told Israeli reporters over recent days that he was asked by the Israelis a number of years ago to assassinate Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian activist who headed the Fatah Tanzim organisation. He claims Israelis tried to kill him after he refused to assassinate Mr Barghouti.
Mr Injaz is in Israel without a visa. Palestinian officials confirmed he is wanted as a collaborator in the West Bank and faces treason charges.
In 2006 Mr Injaz barricaded himself in the British embassy in Tel Aviv. – (additional reporting Reuters)