INSIDE ISRAELI HIT ON HAMAS

New York Post | 7/24/02 | URI DAN

[kattracks]

July 24, 2002 -- JERUSALEM - Only a few hours after Israeli intelligence pinpointed the whereabouts of its most wanted terrorist, an Israeli air force jet delivered a "perfect hit" on his lair - with a 1-ton "smart" bomb, officials said yesterday.

The lightning-quick "targeted killing" of the elusive Hamas leader Salah Shehada was carried out Monday night by a pilot so skilled and with equipment so sophisticated that he could put the powerful explosive "through the left side of a window or through the right side if he had to," former air force Brig. Gen. Ran Peker said.

But Israeli officials said they were investigating why faulty intelligence failed to detect the presence of civilians in Shehada's hideout before the attack that killed him, his wife and 13 others, including nine children.

Sources said Shehada - dubbed the "bin Laden of Hamas" - had unwittingly escaped execution eight times since Israel put him at the top of its death list.

They said the plan to eliminate Shehada, the shadowy military commander of Hamas, began about six months ago, when Israel's defense Cabinet - headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres - met to consider new steps to end the mounting wave of attacks.

That small group of top officials approved a "bank of targets" - both locations and individuals whose direct involvement in terrorism had been established by evidence gathered by Israel's secret service or military intelligence, officials said.

Shehada, believed to have been involved in "hundreds" of attacks on Israelis during the Palestinian uprising, was among the first names on the list, sources said.

Shin Bet officer Moti Yaakobi, who once interrogated Shehada, called him a first-rate operational commander with an excellent memory that enabled him to memorize the entire Koran - as well as Israeli targets for terrorism.

After approving the death list, the defense Cabinet gave Sharon and Ben-Eliezer authority to give the final go-ahead whenever the military and intelligence services determined Israeli forces had the best window of opportunity.

Shehada, who frequently changed homes, apparently knew he was on such a list, sources said.

In May 2001, he wrote a will describing how his funeral should be carried out and with details such as who should wash his body for burial.

Sources said despite his secrecy and elusiveness, Israel pinpointed Shehada's location eight times since the death list was approved - but each time a plan of attack was called off, sometimes at the last moment, when it was discovered civilians might be harmed.

Late Monday, Israeli intelligence again picked up Shehada's location.

It reported to Sharon and to Ben-Eliezer that there were no civilians near the Hamas commander.

Israel's military planners decided to use a single, 1-ton bomb, rather than two smaller bombs to minimize the possibility of one going astray, officials said.

Israeli authorities said the raid worked according to plan. But officials are now looking into why military intelligence failed to determine the presence of civilians, including Shehada's wife.

[goldstategop]

I consider Shehada's wife and children justified casualties. The same Palestinians screaming loudly about their deaths have been the same Palestinians clapping hands and cheering lustily when entire Jewish families were wiped out by homocide bombers. Apparently they're appalled when the shoe's on the other foot. The families of terrorists deserve no immunity whatsoever in what is after all a war and even that is misleading since one side to the conflict in no way considers itself bound by the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war. The Palestinians made their bed and need go down and lie and (perhaps) die in it.

[ovrtaxt]

He probably went everywhere with a shield of civilians, including his kids. Typical of these people, putting their kids in harms way.

[goldstategop]

And the fact needs to be emphasized for misguided Western fools that they're in love with death and relish murder as a way of life.

[csvset]

Is there a "before" pic of this guy?

[kattracks]

The same Palestinians screaming loudly about their deaths have been the same Palestinians clapping hands and cheering lustily when entire Jewish families were wiped out by homocide bombers.

Innocent civilians, who were purposely targeted by the Palestinian homicidal terrorists.

[goldstategop]

No is there an "after" pic of this guy? No wonder the homocide nazis are enraged.

[goldstategop]

Too bad Ari Fleischer didn't point that little factoid out for the benefit of the press while our government was busy condemning Israel for the same things its been doing in Afghanistan.

[ovrtaxt]

Yeah, the admin's response to this hit about made me puke. This PC crap will cause us to lose this war if we don't get over it.

[SolomonSemperFi]

I emailed the president and told him I thought Ari's comments about Israel were inappropriate. I think Israel did the job just right!!!!

Of course he had all those kids around for the very purpose they served....Hey time about fair play!!!!

Gooooooooo Israel!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wave Rider]

Again, the Jews made a big mistake when the 100,000 assembled to shoot their guns off and march down the street after the bombing their Leader, they should have dropped a massive propane bomb on their heads and got them all.

[AmericaUnited]

And the fact needs to be emphasized for misguided Western fools that they're in love with death

"What you sow, you reap"

Why are the Pali's so excited this scum became a "glorious marytr"?

[Redleg Duke]

These cowardly bastards in Hamas have been preying on the Israeli civilians and their own people for years. They send useful idiots to there suicides with perverted religion, they attack the innocent and then they take cover behind the skirts of their own women and the bodies of their own children.

These bastards established the rules of enguagement...now they can die by them.

And sad to say, when I heard the description of one of them lifting the body of the baby on high, my initial reaction was, "Well, there is one terrorist we won't have to worry about in 13 years!"

[operation clinton cleanup]

Ari and "W" were doing high fives after the press conference.... some things are meant for Euro-consumption only!

[dennisw]

ping

[dennisw]

Wed Jul 24, 5:39 AM ET

Two Palestinian men, one with a broken arm, are seen on the balcony of their damaged apartment at the site of an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, Wednesday, July 24, 2002. An Israeli warplane attacked a house in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, killing at least 12 people, including Salah Shehadeh, commander of the military wing of Hamas. Graffiti in Arabic reads "This is the American weapon" (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Tue Jul 23,11:24 AM ET

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin attends the funeral of 15 Palestinians who were killed during an Israeli missile strike in Gaza July 23, 2002. Israel killed the commander of the military wing of Hamas and 14 other Palestinians, including nine children, in an air raid that also wiped out a crowded city block on Tuesday, hospital officials said. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

 

Wed Jul 24, 7:28 AM ET

Palestinians inspect the damage to their houses after an Israeli missile strike during the night in the Gaza Strip, July 23, 2002. Israel killed the commander of the military wing of Hamas and 10 other Palestinians including eight children in the missile strike on his home in the Gaza Strip. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters)

[cardinal4]

The fact that Israel bombed an aprtment with civilians in it just to kill Hamas leaders,just goes to show how tired the Israelis are of burying kids. I certainly dont condone targeting civilians, but this should put the PA on notice that hiding murderers among innocents will not spare the terrorists. It is now incumbent upon the Palestinian non-combatants to expose all the terrorists among them,or suffer the same fate as the murderers. Just my opinion.

[neutrino]

Isn't it odd...those who are so outraged about some collateral damage when Israel responds, are utterly silent when Jewish men, women, children, and infants are slaughtered.

[OldFriend]

Oh, poor babies, guess they gots a boo boo! Wait till next time!!!! Hopefully, the entire neighborhood will go BOOM!!

[Tolik]

He escaped 8 times, because Israel was unwilling to kill civilians together with him. This time it looked like he was alone, or being cynical, they say they did not know he was not alone. Even if they knew, and now just playing the PR game (I don't believe this because they are so lousy in PR games), G-d knows how many Israeli are dead because he was not eliminated before. In a war, you put lives of your own above of the lives of civilians of your enemy. He knowingly sacrificed the lives of his family by hiding behind them. He condemned them. The same as Arabs condemned their own by not recognizing the establishment of Israel and Palestine in 1948, by sacrificing them as pawns in the endless global chess game/war: not absorbing them like Israel did with her people, keeping them in miserable condition in the refugee camps, not giving them rights in any Arab country, steaming their rage with hate propaganda, marinating the canon fodder to the best condition of zombies hating children of Israel more then loving their own children. What a waste!