Israel said it foiled Sunday five suicide bombers, including two it killed close to an army camp near Hadera and three others were captured alive on two separate incidents inside the West Bank.
The Israeli intelligence believes the Palestinian organizations may have switched their focus to soldiers and settlers to try to drive a wedge through Israeli society, reports Haaretz.
A suicide bomber, apparently on his way to Jerusalem, was arrested near Ramallah, and a senior army officer said Israeli forces captured another two suicide bombers between Nablus and Ramallah. There are still high alerts about possible terror attacks in revenge for the Israeli assassination of the head of the Hamas military wing in Jenin on Saturday.
Camp Attack
On Sunday afternoon, two armed Palestinians were apparently about to carry out a combined shooting and suicide bombing attack. When police stopped the car near a military base, one man jumped out and started shooting.
He was quickly shot dead but his companion sped off with police cars in pursuit. He blew himself and his car up several kilometres later, injuring two Israeli police officers who were closing in behind him in their vehicle.
Relatives of one of the two attackers, who they named as Mohammad Hmudha,18, and Abdel Jabar Abdel Kadher, 22, said a splinter group of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah group -- the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades -- was responsible for the assault.
An Israeli government spokesman had earlier warned Arafat's Palestinian Authority that no one with direct links to the attacks would be immune from Israeli reprisals after the latest attack. "The Palestinian Authority must understand that from now on there will be no impunity for anyone caught actively engaging in terrorist activity," spokesman Raanan Gissin told AFP.
The Palestinian Authority condemned these threats. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
