§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider that the assassination of Yahya Ayyash ("the Engineer") within the autonomous Palestinian National Authority allegedly by the Israeli authorities was, as was feared by members of the Israeli Knesset and by President Arafat, and as was stated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the trigger for the suicide bomb attacks in Israel, and whether they will ensure that this assassination is not overlooked at the Sharm el-Sheikh follow-up meeting later this month.
§ Baroness Chalker of WallaseyThe Sharm el-Sheikh follow-up meeting to which the noble Lord alludes has been postponed sine die. It is not clear whether Hamas and Islamic Jihad needed the pretext of the assassination of Yahya Ayyash to launch their deplorable terrorist operations aimed at undermining the peace process.