Israeli actor shot to death in West Bank

JENIN, West Bank, April 4 (UPI) -- A masked assailant shot and killed Israeli actor-director Juliano Mer-Khamis in the Jenin refugee camp, a police official said.

Mohammed Tayyim, the local Palestinian police chief ,said the 53-year-old actor was shot five times, Haaretz reported. His body was later transferred by ambulance to Israel, the newspaper said.

Mer-Khamis had left a local theater with his son and was headed for his car when he was shot. The gunman then fled the area, Maariv said.

He was pronounced dead at the local hospital, the Hebrew language newspaper said.

Mer-Khamis was born in Nazareth to a Jewish mother and Arab father, and was a known political activist, actor, director and producer, Maariv said.

In recent years his life was threatened a number of times because of his work, the newspaper said.

Mer-Khamis established a theater for children and adults in Jenin called the "Freedom Theater" in 2006 with Zakhariya Zubeidi, the former head of the Fatah al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, Haaretz said.

He served in the Paratroopers Brigade and began his acting career in 1984 when he starred in the American film "The Little Drummer Girl" with Diane Keaton, Maariv said.