11:55 13/11/2002 Last update - 11:56 13/11/2002

By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The gunman who killed five people at Kibbutz Metzer this week may have been Sirhan Sirhan, a distant cousin of the man who assassinated U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968, security sources in Israel and Palestinian sources said Tuesday.

Kennedy, brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, was gunned down at a victory celebration shortly after winning the California Democratic presidential primary in 1968. Kennedy's killer was widely reported to have acted in anger over the senator's outspoken support of Israel.

The home of the attack's planner, Mohammed Naifeh, in Shweike, a town north of Tul Karm, was demolished Tuesday by the IDF, while Palestinian sources said the IDF had arrested Sirhan's uncle. Military sources pegged Sirhan as a Tanzim member from the Tul Karm area. It was not known if the suspect in the Metzer attack, whom the security forces sought in Kfar Qasem on Monday, was named after his more infamous relative.

Although Sirhan is still a suspect, the security forces are certain Naifeh was the planner. He is considered one of the most wanted men in the territories over the past year. His name has been given to the PA several times and information about his activities has also been given to the Americans.

In effect, Naifeh is the person who got Yasser Arafat into trouble with the Americans. In June this year, a few days after a suicide bombing at the French Hill Junction in Jerusalem, Arafat met in Jerusalem with Naifeh, one of the leaders of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, and gave him an envelope with $20,000 for Tanzim activity.

Israel reported the handover to the Americans and Naifeh's involvement in the French Hill attack. At the end of June, the New York Times said the information had had a profound impact on the president and a few days later he delivered his June 24th speech that in unprecedented terms essentially "divorced" Arafat.

At the start of the intifada, Naifeh was part of the group headed by Raed Karmi, who was assassinated in January. The Karmi network was responsible for the deaths of some 20 Israelis, in shooting attacks in the Tul Karm area and elsewhere inside Israel.

More than a year ago, the PA, through the General Intelligence Service headed by Tawfik Tirawi, moved Naifeh to Ramallah, held him in prison, but later released him.

Two months ago the IDF disseminated leaflets in the Tul Karm area, when Naifeh was believed to be in the area, calling on the population to hand him over to the authorities. Israeli sources said yesterday that Naifeh had contacts with representatives of the European Union, who tried persuading Fatah to cease terrorist activities, at least inside the Green Line.

At this stage Israel does not have any hard and fast information about Naifeh's whereabouts, though there are suspicions he is in either the Nablus or Tul Karm area. One of the goals of the broad operation in the northern West Bank beginning today is the capture Naifeh and the terrorist - Sirhan or whoever it was - who massacred the people in Metzer.

Troops also carried out operations in the village of Dir Abu Mashal, north west of Ramallah. According to reports, the soldiers were carrying out house-to-house searches as well as questioning all of the men in the village.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2002