In a statement published Tuesday evening, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack that took place earlier in the day in northern Israel close to the border with Lebanon.
Six Israelis, including a military officer, were killed and seven were wounded in this assault. The two gunmen were killed during the gunbattle erupted with Israeli soldiers.
In the statement, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed that the gunmen were residents of a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and had crossed the border in order to avenge the Israeli occupation. Israeli authorities, however, have so far found no signs of infiltration from the border with Lebanon.
In Beirut, a Lebanese official denied initial speculation that the firing had come from across the border, saying instead that the operation was carried out by "a group acting inside Israeli territory and not from Lebanon."
Attack Details
Two gunmen opened fire Tuesday noon on Israeli vehicles traveling along the Lebanese - Israeli border.
Reports from the scene indicated that Israeli security forces killed two of the gunmen responsible for the attack after a 30-minute gun-battle close to kibbutz Metzuba.
Later, Israeli security forces conducted aerial and land searches for other possible members of the armed cell and shots were heard in the area, some three hours after the attack began.
Six Israelis, including a military officer, were killed and seven were wounded in this assault.
Israeli police sources said that a truck driver, mother and her daughter in a second car and a person in a third vehicle were among those killed in the shooting attack.
The gunmen were dressed in Israeli army uniforms and armed with Kalashnikov rifles.
Israel's commander of the Galilee police, Yehuda Sulman said that, "there was no indication of a terrorist infiltration from the northern border." The United Nations also said that it did not detect any infiltration on the border, as did the Israeli army.
Ra'anan Gissin, an adviser to Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, stated whether the attackers came from Lebanon or from within Israel, their purpose was to provoke a wider war.
"We will not allow any kind of escalation ... At the same time, we'll pursue the terrorists and those who perpetrated this act and we'll be able to strike at them with impunity," he commented.
Israeli military sources told Haaretz that they believed the gunmen came from inside Israel or the West Bank, but did not rule out the possibility that the attack was planned in Lebanon.
An Israeli farmer from the Western Galilee, Yitzhak Friedman, said that he had seen what appeared to be two soldiers in the area Tuesday morning about four hours before that attack started. He had waved to them, and they waved back. He was brought in by the authorities to identify the bodies of the gunmen, and said that they were then men he had seen earlier in the day. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
