The West Bank

By LISA BEYER AND AHARON KLEIN/JERUSALEM

New light has fallen on the mystery surrounding the death of MUHI A DIN SHARIF, the Hamas bombmaker whose body was found naked outside an explosives lab in Ramallah, in the West Bank, on March 29 (TIME, April 13). The Palestinian Authority maintains Sharif was shot and then blown up in an inside job; two Hamas men remain in a Palestinian jail accused of the crime. Other Palestinians blamed Israel. But after Yasser Arafat ordered Palestinian officials to turn over to Israeli police the two Kalashnikov bullets found in Sharif's chest, new weight has been given to a different theory. Israeli forensics experts say the bullets were never fired from a gun and were probably part of the debris sent flying when Sharif accidentally triggered a bomb he was making. The bullets did have some scratches etched on them, possibly a primitive attempt to frame the Hamas men.

--By Lisa Beyer and Aharon Klein/Jerusalem