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News Updates	Tue., March 23, 2004 Nisan 1, 5764	Israel Time: 16:32 (GMT+2)

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Last Update: 23/03/2004 16:32

Extra security for 7 MKs after officials face terror threats

By Gideon Alon and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin announced Tuesday that security for seven Knesset members has been beefed up after terror groups threatened to target Israeli public officials following the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza the day before.

Rivlin said that security had been increased for Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), MKs Danny Yatom (Labor), Ehud Yatom (Likud), David Levy (Likud), Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor), Issam Makhoul (Hadash) and Talab al-Sana (United Arab List).

The Shin Bet security service already provides security for Rivlin and the leader of the opposition, MK Shimon Peres (Labor).

Security forces on month-long alert
Security forces maintained their high alert Tuesday and are expected to remain so throughout the Passover holiday in April in the wake of the assassination.

Yassin was killed at daybreak Monday in an Israel Air Force helicopter strike in Gaza City. The 68-year-old quadraplegic was leaving morning prayers at the Omari Mosque, barely 250 meters from his home, around 5 A.M. when three missiles struck him and his entourage, killing Yassin and seven others - bodyguards and other Hamas operatives - and wounding 15 more, including two of his sons.

Tel Aviv police commander Yossi Sedbon said Tuesday that he expects the alert level to remain high for at least a month.

"I think we can expect a very difficult month from the point of view of the police, and I don't see how we could remove the alert in less than a month from today," he told Army Radio.

Security has been bolstered along the seam line and in city centers, as well as along the northern border with Lebanon, due to fear that Hezbollah will escalate violence there. The Lebanese militant group opened fire on Israel Defense Forces outposts along the border Monday night. But Hezbollah militants abandoned their posts overnight for fear of an Israeli reprisal, Army Radio reported Tuesday.

The IDF Northern Command decided Tuesday that it would respond if Hezbollah continues to shell the northern border, Israel Radio reported. The army says it expects Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah, as it did during the war in Iraq and in Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in 2001, when it set up barriers in the south of the country to prevent militants from approaching the border fence.

Hamas, Hezbollah and Arafat's Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have all vowed revenge for the assassination. The Hamas military wing, Iz a Din al-Kassam, announced it would avenge the killing both in Israel and overseas. "Ariel Sharon gave the order to kill hundreds of Zionists on every street, in every city and everywhere in the occupied lands," it said in a statement.

IDF soldiers guarding a Tel Aviv shopping mall Tuesday, as Israel went on high alert. (AP)

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