Posted on 07/26/2002 7:39:11 AM PDT by white trash redneck
A faction of the Fatah is threatening to target senior Israeli government and army officials, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in response to Israel's killing of senior Hamas military commander Salah Shehadeh and 14 other Palestinians, among them nine children, in Gaza earlier this week. The group, known as "The Return Brigade," also threatened former prime minister Ehud Barak, OC Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, his predecessor, Lt.-Gen. (res.) Shaul Mofaz, Shin Bet chief Avi Dichter, Education Minister Limor Livnat, and Minister of Internal Security Uzi Landau, IDF major-generals Avi Malka and Giora Ireland, and politicians Avigdor Lieberman and Yitzhak Levy. Since the attack in Gaza on Tuesday morning, Israeli security forces have been placed on high alert, and have beefed up their presence along the Green Line as well as in main Israeli cities and towns. A senior commander in the Fatah's sister group, the Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Abu Mojihad, confirmed the report with Y-net and said the decision to target senior Israeli officials was in response to the attack in Gaza. The list was published last night and, according to reports, aired on Hizbullah's Al Manara television station. Details of the "Palestinian hit list" were broadcasted as thousands attended the funeral in Petah Tikva of Rabbi Elimelech Shapira, 42, the head of the pre-military college and Eretz Hatzvi hesder yeshiva in Peduel in western Samaria. Shapira was shot and killed yesterday morning as he drove in his car in the area. Al-Aksa Brigade claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred as Shapira drove together with Peduel resident Elitzur Liliental to attend a Torah study session in Petah Tikva at 3:30 yesterday morning. Approximately four kilometers from the community, near the village of Brukhin, two terrorists set up an ambush and lay waiting for the vehicle and, with Kalashnikov assault rifles, pumped 12 bullets into the vehicle and fled on foot towards Brukhin. Shapira was fatally wounded, while Liliental, who suffered moderate gunshot wounds, continued steering the vehicle and alerted the security forces. A medical team from the community that arrived to treat the two also came under heavy gunfire as they attempted to resuscitate Shapira, whose death was declared shortly afterwards by a military doctor. Liliental was taken to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where he underwent surgery. Israeli security officials believe that the terrorists had observed the area of the attack and knew that several times a week Shapira drove on the road in the early morning hours at a time when no other vehicles were around. Security forces scoured the area and placed the nearby Palestinian villages under curfew. Later in the morning residents from the community set up a stone memorial at the site of the attack. Shapira's murder shocked the 131 family settlement, as he was their first victim of the intifada. At his home yesterday, surrounded by the couple's eight children, his wife, Rivka, told reporters "enough, enough sorrow and bereavement... I look at these orphans... if he is the last victim, it will be worth it... enough, enough." Elsewhere in the country, the violence continued. Last night two Kassam rockets were fired at a Negev town; no one was wounded in the attack. Earlier, two anti-tank rockets were fired at an IDF post in Neveh Dekalim in Gush Katif. Early yesterday morning in the Gaza Strip area, Palestinians fired one Kassam rocket that landed meters from a home in an Israeli community in northern Gaza. No one was wounded, but a girl was treated for shock. Another Kassam rocket was fired at an Israeli community in the western Negev and three mortar shells were fired at IDF posts in south and north Gaza. No one was wounded in any of the incidents. Shots were also fired at IDF positions near Netzer Hazani, Neveh Dekalim, and Ganei Tal and near Rafah. In the West Bank, the army lifted the curfews on four cities during the day to allow residents to stock up on food. At noon shots were fired at an Israeli truck near El Fawar refugee camp in the Hebron Hills. The truck driver, an Israeli Arab, was unharmed, but five of the eight bullets hit the truck causing damage. The driver told security officials that a terrorist stood in the middle of the road and shot at the vehicle and fled. The driver continued to a nearby army roadblock at Adorayim, where he reported the incident. Continuing its crackdown on terror, an IDF unit arrested Ahmed al-Mitsri, a senior Hamas commander in Ramallah, who was in the midst of planning to perpetrate a car bomb attack inside Israel on Rosh Hashana. According to security officials he was also planning additional attacks inside Israel. In Kalkilya, security forces arrested the senior commander of the Aksa Brigade, Ahmed Haza, and two other Palestinian fugitives. Palestinians reported that the security forces also demolished Haza's house and arrested his nephew. Two other activists who were with him managed to evade arrest. In Jenin yesterday, 10 Palestinians were wounded when their minibus drove over a mine that had apparently been placed in the road by terrorists to be detonated underneath an IDF tank. They were taken to the local hospital.
Really!! (Suprise?)
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