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| Middle East |
| Israel Military Blows Up Attacker’s Home |
| 2004-01-30 |
| Israeli forces raided the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Friday in response to a deadly Jerusalem bus bombing and demolished the house of the Palestinian policeman who blew himself up in the attack. Ten Israelis were killed and more than 50 wounded in Thursday’s suicide attack, the deadliest in four months. Such bombings in the past triggered large-scale Israeli military raids, but Israel this time appeared to have decided on a more measured response. The Bethlehem incursion, the first in six months, was small in scale, and Israel did not clamp a closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as it had done routinely in the past. There were competing claims of responsibility for Thursday’s suicide bombing, with Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin announcing on Friday that his Islamic militant group was behind the attack. Just hours after the blast, however, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, said it sent the bomber. Yassin offered no explanation for the Hamas military wing’s delayed claim of responsibility. "The evidence shows that they carried out this attack. ... There is a videotape of the individual who carried out the attack and it will be distributed throughout the West Bank," he said. Yassin also said Friday that his group is making every effort to seize Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails. The declaration came a day after a prisoner swap between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah. Israel released more than 400 prisoners, the vast majority Palestinians, in exchange for an Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. The swap boosted the standing of Hezbollah in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and appeared to put Hamas on the defensive. Yassin said he believes Israel will only free Palestinian prisoners under pressure. "There is no solution to the prisoner issue except with the kidnapping of soldiers of the enemy and exchanging them with our own prisoners," he said. The target of the Bethlehem raid was the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of town. Several dozen jeeps and armored vehicles moved slowly through darkened streets in convoys, training spotlights onto houses. Soldiers ringed the house of the bomber, Ali Jaara. Figures could be seen moving past brightly lit windows in the building’s second floor and walking down an outdoor staircase. A few hours later, troops blew up the house with explosive charges. The military said only that an operation was in progress in Bethlehem and surrounding areas and that troops arrested several suspected militants. It was the first military operation in the city since troops left the town in July as part of a larger withdrawal called for under a U.S.-backed peace plan. Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat condemned the raid. "Instead of sending soldiers and tanks to Bethlehem, Israel’s government should have sent negotiators to resume a meaningful peace process," Erekat said. Also Friday, troops shot to death an Islamic Jihad member, Jihad Suwaiti, near the West Bank city of Hebron. The military said the man fired shots from a Kalashnikov assault rifle as soldiers came to arrest him, and troops returned fire, killing him. In the Gaza Strip, a tank crew shot and killed two Palestinians. The military said it fired on a group carrying two explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades near the Israeli settlement of Dugit shortly after midnight. Elsewhere in the West Bank, troops demolished six buildings — one of them a four-story apartment complex — where Hamas militants captured by Israeli forces used to live. More than 50 people were left homeless. The arrested men from the violent Islamic group are accused by Israel of being behind two recent shooting ambushes that killed five soldiers. The Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank town of Jenin also was arrested. Sharif Tahaymeh had been on Israel’s wanted list for more than three years. The stepped-up military activity appeared to be a response to Thursday morning’s suicide bombing in Jerusalem, which ripped apart a bus just a block from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence. Sharon was not home at the time of the blast. Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met later Thursday to consider options after the bombing. Israel’s leadership was divided over how hard to hit back but appeared to have decided on a measured response. The 24-year-old bomber was a Palestinian police officer — causing much chagrin within the Palestinian Authority, which has been under international pressure to use its police force to stop such attacks. The attack also disrupted a visit by two senior U.S. State Department officials, David Satterfield and John Wolf, who were trying to persuade Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to meet with Sharon as a way of restarting the stalled "road map" peace plan. The two envoys were at Israel’s Defense Ministry when the bomber struck. After yesterday, this should be good troll bait..... |
| Posted by:Jarhead |
| #5 The 24-year-old bomber was a Palestinian police officer — causing much chagrin within the Palestinian Authority, which has been under international pressure to use its police force to stop such attacks. Hmmmmmmmmm. Doesn't sound like that strategy's working out too well, does it? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-1-30 8:40:14 PM |
| #4 The attack also disrupted a visit by two senior U.S. State Department officials, David Satterfield and John Wolf, who were trying to persuade Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to meet with Sharon as a way of restarting the stalled "road map" peace plan. The two envoys were at Israel’s Defense Ministry when the bomber struck. Nothing like a good dose of reality. The question is, will the State Department finally come to their senses? Probably not. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-30 12:08:43 PM |
| #3 i dont think their reaction to Hamas will be the same as that to hezbollah, and it wont take long for Hamas to see that. As far as i can tell there is some kind of deal making going on with Hezbollah. Things seen and things unseen. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2004-1-30 10:02:16 AM |
| #2 Jersey, good point. Appeasement (the Arabs like to call it negotiation) almost always backfires like that. Another amusing variable of dealing w/people who think nothing like you or I do. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-1-30 9:23:18 AM |
| #1 Yassin also said Friday that his group is making every effort to seize Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinians in Israeli jails That is exactly the reason the Israelis should have never bargained in the first place. Now having established an exchange rate, the Paleos are probably thinking that for a half dozen soldiers, Sharon will empty the jails for them. |
| Posted by: JerseyMike 2004-1-30 9:03:11 AM |