The head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet), Avi Dichter, told Tuesday's meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense that in 2001 there had been a "worrying increase" in the number of Israeli Arabs involved in armed organizations with the aim of carrying out attacks on Jewish targets inside Israel.
Dichter said that last year, 25 such organizations were uncovered by the Israeli security forces, most of them affiliated to the Islamic Resistance movement Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Five of the groups were located in the Arab city of Umm al Fahm, one of whose cells had planned to launch a suicide bombing in central Israel at the end of February. The bombing was planned to take place in a bank in a residential area at a time when National Insurance payments were being distributed, reported Haaretz daily.
Additionally, the Shin Bet chief described last week's incident in which two Palestinian activists were killed by an explosion in their car, close to the moshav Mei Ami in Wadi Ara. Dichter disclosed that the explosion was huge and had been designed to cause the maximum number of casualties. He said that the explosive device was twice the size of the bomb that exploded at the Dolphinarium last June, in which over 20 people were killed.
In response to a question on the proposed visit by Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg to the West Bank city of Ramallah, Dichter said that the Shin Bet stance on the matter came from the defense minister, (and Labor Party chairman) Benjamin Ben-Eliezer. According to Dichter, the Shin Bet is not able to guarantee Knesset members' safety in Palestinian-ruled Area A.
Halhoul
Meanwhile, Israeli occupation troops staged a pre-dawn incursion into the West Bank town of Halhoul near Hebron, destroying two houses and killing a security officer, Palestinian officials said Tuesday.
According to WAFA, a member of the Palestinian security forces, identified as Tarek Al Hendawi (22), was shot dead as he fled a checkpoint during the pre-dawn raid.
Witnesses said that the Israeli forces backed with tanks and bulldozers also destroyed three buildings in the town, before withdrawing.
Elsewhere, the occupation army arrested at least 10 Palestinians in an area “B” near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
Arafat
Renouncing earlier comments blaming Hizbullah, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said in comments published on Tuesday that Israel was behind an arms shipment seized on January 3.
In an interview with Lebanon's An-Nahar, Arafat said Israel's intelligence, Mossad, had engineered the arms ship affair as a strike aimed against the Palestinians, Iran and Lebanon's Resistance party Hizbullah.
Israel had accused Arafat of direct involvement in the Karine A, a ship carrying 50 tons of Iranian weapons that Israel intercepted in the Red Sea last month. Israel continuously said Iran and Hizbullah were involved.
The Palestinian Authority denied it had anything to do with the arms and Iran also firmly denied any involvement. In remarks published last week, Arafat restated his denial of any connection to the ship and blamed Hizbullah.
"It is absolutely a story of lies. The ship was owned by Hizbullah, who bought it from its Iraqi owner for about $400,000. The weapons were on the way to Hizbullah, and we have no connection with this case," Arafat was quoted as saying in an interview with the Egyptian magazine Al Mussawar.
The Iranian-backed Hizbullah group rejected strongly Arafat's charges.
Asked what evidence he had against Hizbullah, Arafat was quoted as saying in the interview with An-Nahar, "We do not accuse Iran or Hizbullah. We accuse Israel, its government and its intelligence apparatus. Although we lack proof today, evidence and proof indicate that there was an Israeli hand behind the ship episode aimed at striking us and striking Iran and Hizbullah."
The Hizbullah group, which led a guerrilla war against Israel's 18-year occupation of a border zone in southern Lebanon, was among 22 organizations signaled out as terrorist groups by U.S. President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Moreover, at the end of January, Bush said in his State of the Union address before Congress that Iran was part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North Korea, because it develops weapons of mass destruction, an allegation that Iran strongly denies.
Furthermore, Arafat also denied Israeli reports that Iran and Hizbullah were assisting the Palestinian uprising, Intifada, against Israel.
"These are invalid Israeli accusations [designed] to provoke the United States against us and against Iran and Hizbullah. Iranian officials and Hizbullah have announced that they do not have any group or activity in Palestinian territories," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
