Posted on 03/04/2003 12:28:16 PM PST by anotherview
Mar. 4, 2003
IDF source: Hamas founder nabbed in Gaza not original target
By THE JERUSALEM POST STAFF
A senior IDF source said Tuesday that a Hamas founder arrested by the IDF in its raid on the Gaza Strip Monday was not the original target of the raid.
Sheikh Muhammad Taha, a founder of Hamas, was shot and arrested on Monday in an IDF raid on two refugee camps in the Gaza Strip in which eight Palestinians were killed and 38 were wounded. Two soldiers were lightly wounded by shrapnel from a grenade thrown during the incursion.
Three of Taha's sons, Iman, 33, Hassan, 32, and Yasser, 30, who was Hamas fugitive Muhammad Deif's right-hand man, were also arrested. Iman was also wounded in the raid. Both he and his father, 65, were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
The operation was aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure, arresting fugitives, and demolishing the homes of terrorists.
However, a senior Israeli security official said the leader, Hamas co-founder Mohammed Taha, 65, was not the target. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israeli forces wanted to capture his son, Ayman, linked to the chief Hamas bomb maker.
Earlier the Israeli military spokesman's office said the senior Taha was tied to terror attacks.
(With The Associated Press)
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