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Posted on 04/25/2004 9:47:56 AM PDT by yonif
Jerusalem police have arrested three Palestinian teenagers suspected of carrying out two lethal shooting attacks in the city over the last month, and planning a series of other attacks against Jews, police announced Sunday.
The three suspects were caught red handed in their vehicle on Friday night as they planned to shoot another Israeli in the city's Ramat Eshkol neighborhood.
A court gag order which was in place on the case at police's request was lifted late Sunday afternoon, after the suspects reenacted the crimes.
The three men, Sajid Abu-Alous, 18, and his cousin Amar Abu-Alous, 19, from the Jerusalem borderline village of Kfar Akab, and Louay Karnaz, 19, from the West Bank city of Ramallah, are suspected of murdering a 20 year old Jerusalem Arab student, George Khoury, who they mistook for a Jew in the city's northern French Hill neighborhood on March 19, and of shooting and seriously wounding a 24 year old Israeli, Nir Gil, in the city's adjacent Givat HaMivtar neighborhood last Monday.
The three, who have confessed to carrying out the attacks due to their hatred of Jews, are also suspected of planning a series of other murderous attacks across the city, police said.
Two of the three suspects were remanded in custody late Saturday night by the Jerusalem Magistrate's court by twelve days, while a third was ordered held for four days.
During their interrogation, it emerged that the three Arab men, who do not have any past criminal record, established their 'independent' terror cell several months ago due to their "hatred of Jews" and their "desire to become shaheeds" or martyrs, police said.
The three purchased a gun in Ramallah for several hundred Jordanian dinars, and carried out target practice in the Palestinian-run city just north of Jerusalem.
In their first planned attack in early March, the three suspects drove to Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood, where they offered a ride to several haredi residents at a hitchhiking stop, planning to kidnap and then kill their victim.
The three told investigators that such a murder was preferable "since it would be more quiet," police said.
However their original plans were foiled when no one would accept their offer of a ride.
Undeterred, the three tried again. On Friday March 19 the three suspects returned to Jerusalem, starting their day with prayer on the Temple Mount.
Afterwards, they drove to the city's Talpiot industrial zone to carry out their shooting attack but decided against it because the area was crowded.
That evening, the three drove to the city's French Hill neighborhood, knowing that the borderline Jerusalem community would make for an easy escape. Almost at once, they eyed someone walking alone on the street, and planned to kill him, but he disappeared from their sight.
At 9 p.m. they noticed Khoury, a 20 year old Christian Arab student at Hebrew University, out for a jog.
Mistaking him for a Jew, Sajid Abu-Alous -- considered the head of the cell -- got out of the car shot him several times in the head at close range, police said.
The three then fled in the direction of Ramallah. At the time, the El Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah movement, quickly claimed responsibility for the murder, but later apologized after the victim was identified the next morning as an Arab.
Annoyed that that they had killed an Arab instead of a Jew, the three set out in search of their second victim last week.
The three men arrived in the city's adjacent Givat Hamivtar neighborhood on Monday April 19 in a Ford Siesta they acquired specially for the 'mission.'
After the three discerned the 24 year old Gil walking down a residential street, they stopped their car, and Karnaz shot him from the car window, and then fled, police said.
The three parked their vehicle near a gas station in the city's Wadi Joz neighborhood, hiding the gun in the glove compartment, and then taking a cab to Ramallah.
Last Wednesday, when police realized that the second shooting attack in the area in one month's time was also terror-related and was not the result of a romantic quarrel as they initially thought, elite undercover border police forces set up an ambush for the terror cell, lying in wait for them in various locations throughout northern Jerusalem.
On Friday night, the three suspects set out again in their vehicle, heading straight towards the nearby Ramat Eshkol neighborhood.
The three men were noticed by police driving slowly in their vehicle on Rehov Sheshet HaYamim, with one of them holding a video camera in his hand. When police discerned the car trailing a lone pedestrian on Rehov Bar Kochba, police pounced on the men, putting them under arrest.
During a search of their vehicle, police found a loaded gun ready to be used.
Police said that three men will be charged with murder, and multiple counts of attempted murder. The three Palestinians, who police have termed "murderous and cruel" have refused to express remorse for their actions, asserting that they were based on the teachings of the Koran and in the name of God.
"We did this so that God would be satisfied, and in the name of God," Sajid Abu-Alous said at his remand hearing this weekend, adding he feels "no remorse" for his actions.
WARNING: This is a high volume ping list
Oops! This crazy Jihadi forgot #3.
"Don't use the Lord's name in vain."
Bad news, when he meets his maker.
I'm still waiting...
I'm still waiting...
Oh, never mind.
Only a sick, twisted and evil religion could think God would be satisfied with murdering innocent people.
Good point! That is a clear #6 violation (the 'Don't Murder' statute.)
Man, this dude is going to need the cosmic ACLU loy-ya bigtime.
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