Posted on 02/07/2004 6:06:34 PM PST by Alouette
Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge the IAF attack that killed a cousin of the group's leader and a schoolboy in Gaza City on Saturday morning.
Aziz Shami, 33, a cousin of senior Islamic Jihad leader Abdullah Shami, and Tarik al-Susi, 12, were killed, and at least seven others wounded, when a missile hit the car in which Shami was traveling.
"Islamic Jihad is a resistance movement and it will respond to this aggression with all its force," Abdullah Shami told reporters after viewing his cousin's body in the morgue.
Israel security officials said Aziz Shami, responsible for the deaths of numerous soldiers, was planning a major attack against soldiers and civilians in Netzarim in the northern Gaza Strip when he was killed.
Shami was incarcerated by the Palestinian Authority between from 1995 to 2000 for his involvement in the Beit Lid suicide bombing in 1995, in which 22 soldiers were killed, said security officials.
Over the past three and a half years, he was involved in planning and plotting numerous attacks, including the infiltration into Netzarim last October in which three soldiers were killed.
In addition, officials claimed, Shami was involved in manufacturing weapons used in attacks.
Both Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon have said repeatedly that Israel will continue to target terrorists considered to be "ticking bombs."
In an interview on Al-Jazeera's satellite channel, Islamic Jihad official Nafiz Azzam declared that "the attack is a message from Israel that it will continue its violent policy against the Palestinians. We should have a united political stance against the escalating Israeli violence."
Shami and an associate, Khalil al-Bassiouny, were driving down Al-Wihda Street, a main road in the center of Gaza City, when their car was hit by a missile and exploded. Sousi was walking nearby on his way home from school when the blast occurred. Shami was taken to Shifa Hospital, where he died of his wounds. Bassiouny was seriously wounded.
According to some Palestinian reports, some of the vehicle's occupants fled before the blast, after hearing IAF attack helicopters hovering overhead. On Thursday night, Hamas member Nasser Abu Shawka was killed in an explosion in his home in the El-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Israeli security forces denied involvement, claiming he was killed when a bomb he was preparing exploded prematurely, while Hamas officials accused Israel of a targeted killing and promised to avenge his death.
Hamas officials claim that Shawka was handed a model of the Dome of the Rock as a gift, which exploded and killed him. They claimed Israel had rigged it with explosives, and a drone flying overhead had detonated the bomb.
Tom
Perhaps all Hamas and Islamic Jihad members should be required to carry a sign:
WARNING: Being within 100 metres of this terrorist can be hazardous to your health!
Insidious Palestinian TelevisionFatima called me in a panic one night, saying that they had just heard that Jewish residents of our neighborhood near Jerusalem were marching on their villages and shooting everyone. I looked out the window, saw nothing, then sent my husband up the street to check things out. It was perfectly quiet and peaceful, not a soul in sight, not a sound to be heard. I told her then that she should not believe everything on the TV and radio, that they lied in order to get people upset and angry. Even as I told her, I could sense her skepticism... It was when I spoke with her daughter that same night that I realized the extent of the damage those lies on television had caused. I have known Shiruk for years, ever since she was 11. She is now nearly 18. We have hiked together, cooked, danced and sang together. She taught my daughter Arabic every week for a couple of months. She is a beautiful, bright, talented girl who hopes to go to college. To put that ambition in perspective, neither of her parents finished school. Fatima can barely read Arabic, and in her village few girls finish high school... I could hear Shiruk shouting in the background. Fatima kept telling her what I was saying, then Shiruk would argue with her mother, saying, "But they're showing it on TV right now! They're cutting off his head!" Finally, Fatima put Shiruk on the phone. I told her, "Listen to me. It is not true. I am here in our town and there is nothing like that going on. Turn off the TV and stop watching that!" She replied, "But I want to watch and be with my people!"
by Naomi Shira Cohen
Major Blasts Since '93 Peace AccordA list of some of the largest bomb attacks since the Israel-Palestinian peace accord was signed in 1993:
April 6, 1994 - Palestinian parks car rigged with explosives next to bus in Afula, in northern Israel. Nine Israelis killed. Militant Muslim group Hamas claims responsibility.
Oct. 19, 1994 - Palestinian suicide bomber kills 22 Israelis in bus explosion in Tel Aviv. Hamas claims responsibility.
Jan. 22, 1995 -Two Palestinians blow themselves up at the Beit Lod junction in central Israel, killing 21 Israelis. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
April 9, 1995 -Two Palestinians blow themselves up outside two Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, killing seven Israeli soldiers and an American. Hamas and Islamic Jihad claim responsibility.
Feb. 25, 1996 - Palestinian suicide bombers blow up bus in Jerusalem and soldiers' hitchhiking post in coastal city of Ashkelon, killing 24 Israelis, two Americans and a Palestinian. Hamas claims responsibility.
March 3, 1996 - Bus bomb in Jerusalem kills at least 18 people, including six Romanians and two Palestinians. Hamas claimed responsibility.
March 4, 1996 - Suicide bomber blows himself up outside a Tel Aviv shopping center, killing at least 14 people.
July 30, 1997 - Two bombers kill themselves and 15 others in an outdoor Jerusalem market. Leaflet signed by Hamas' military wing claims responsibility.
Sept. 4, 1997 - Three suicide bombs explode, one after the other, in Jerusalem's main outdoor shopping mall, killing 4 people.
June 1, 2001 - Suicide bomber blows himself up outside Tel Aviv nightclub, killing himself and 21 others.
Aug. 9, 2001 - A suicide bomber kills 15 people in Jerusalem pizza restaurant.
Sept. 9, 2001 - The first Israeli-Arab suicide bomber blows himself up at a railroad station in northern Israel, killing three others.
Nov. 29, 2001 - A suicide bomber blows himself up on board a bus on a main highway in Israel's north, killing three passengers. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility for the attack.
Dec. 1, 2001 - Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in back-to-back explosions at a downtown Jerusalem pedestrian mall, killing at least 10 bystanders.
Dec. 2, 2001 - Bomb explodes on bus in northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing at least 14 people.
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