GAZA, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- An Israeli security source Wednesday denied Palestinian Authority claims it had detained Ahmad Saadat, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The PA said on Tuesday it was playing "host" to Saadat, which set off demonstrations in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon with protesters demanding his release. The PA said Saadat surrendered to intelligence officers, but other reports said the PFLP leader was arrested.
An Israeli security source, who spoke to United Press International on condition of anonymity, said, "The man is not under arrest."
"There are no intelligence indications the man was detained. The indications are that he is free," the source said.
Israel has been pressing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to arrest Saadat and his deputy who, Israeli officials say, planned the October assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavaam Zeevi in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would not let Arafat leave Ramallah until Saadat and his deputy were arrested. Sharon later added to the list of conditions the arrest of Fuad Shubaki, who Israel alleges was behind the attempt to smuggle 50 tons of arms and explosives that Israel commandoes intercepted Jan. 3.
Palestinian security sources said the PA security intelligence forces arrested Saadat in Ramallah while he met with security intelligence chief Col. Tawfeek Terawi.
While the PA denied that its security arrested Saadat, and said the PFLP official turned himself over to the Palestinian intelligence and that he would be hosted by the PA for a few days, Saadat's wife said the incident was against Saadat's wishes.
Abla Saadat said PA officials convinced her husband to come and meet them at a Ramallah hotel. She added that after Saadat went to the hotel, special security forces of the PA surrounded the building and arrested him.
Saadat in October was elected by the PFLP leadership as its secretary-general; he replaced Abu Ali Mustafa, who was killed in a targeted attack by Israel in August.
Several Palestinian militant groups issued statements condemning the alleged arrest. Hamas Politburo chief Khaled Mashaal warned that the PA "went too far and it's in its interest to stop such measures because it is digging its grave with its own hands."
Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad, dismissed the "wish for a Palestinian internal confrontation," saying "people's will is to be demonstrated by intensifying resistance."
Elsewhere, a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, who apparently was mistaken for a Jew, was shot and killed Wednesday morning in the northern West Bank, Israeli army and police reported.
Police said Dasis Shehadeh, 30, of the Beit Haninah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Shehadeh had been driving a van with Israeli license plates when he was shot.
The attack occurred as Israelis were burying Yoela Hen, 45, who was killed Tuesday evening. Later Tuesday, a funeral was scheduled for Avi Boaz, 72, who was kidnapped near a Palestinian police roadblock near Bethlehem. Boaz' body was found near a soccer field in Beit Sahur, also near Bethlehem.
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(With reporting by Joshua Brilliant in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Dalal Saoud in Beirut, Lebanon.)
