Top terrorist 'mediated' Islamic Jihad surrender

The most visible Palestinian terrorist in the northern West Bank said Thursday he mediated the surrender of a top Islamic Jihad militant to Israeli forces after a daylong siege in the pre-dawn hours.

Zakaria Zubeidi, gun-toting leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in the town of Jenin, told The Associated Press that after midnight, he got a call from Mohammed Barakeh, an Israeli Arab member of parliament, asking him to intervene in a standoff between the Israeli military and the terrorist, Iyad Abu Rub.

Barakeh had already talked to the military and worked out a deal, he said. On Wednesday, dozens of troops surrounded a building in Jenin in the hunt for Abu Rub. Witnesses said Abu Rub, a senior commander of Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank, emerged from the house after midnight and was taken away by soldiers along with one of his aides.

Zubeidi said he negotiated the end of the siege, getting the army to stop its demolition of the building and

allowing the militants to emerge unharmed.

"I phoned them and spoke to the fugitives and they were scared to death and then they surrendered without any problems," Zubeidi said.

Zubeidi is the unofficial leader of the Jenin refugee camp, walking on the streets with his assault rifle and

pistol despite an official Palestinian Authority ban on carrying weapons in public.

Several months ago he

embarrassed the Palestinian Interior Minister by refusing to disarm during the minister's visit.

The Al Aqsa group, responsible for many terror attacks against Israelis, has links to the ruling Palestinian Fatah Party.