Intelligence chief in Israel warns of Hamas attacks
Israel, Politics, 1/28/1998

The chief of Israel's military intelligence branch, Moshe Ya'alon, told a Knesset security and foreign affairs committee that Hamas had become more radical since the release of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin from an Israeli prison and Mousa Abu Marzouk who was detained in the US. He said Hamas took the decision to resume suicide attacks after the ill-fated attempt late last year in Amman by the Israeli Mossad on Khaled Mishal, head of Hamas' political bureau.

Ya¹alon warned that the Hamas¹ military wing was planning on perpetrating a mass attack in the immediate future, and that in doing so it was merely carrying out the orders it received from the organization¹s political leadership both abroad and in the Palestinian territories. It was not clear whether Ya'alon was referring to Jordan or Syria or Iran where the other leadership of the movement is based. In Amman, only the political leaders of the movement live and Israel is very careful about implying that Jordan is not doing enough to combat Hamas activities within its own territory.

Last week, Israel arrested two Palestinians, residents of Israel, for allegedly preparing a suicide bomb attack. The two, whose identities are still suppressed by a court order, were remanded into custody, one for ten days and one for four. They were said to be members of Hamas but their relatives, Bedouin residents in southern Israel, said the arrest was without justification and that the Israeli police and General Security Services had erred. Similar charges were swapped between the police and Shin Bet, the Hebrew acronym for GSS.

Officials in the GSS were reported as saying they did not have any data pointing to the existence of an ³Israeli Hamas,² regardless of statements to the contrary made by police minister Abigdor Kahalani. The officials said the two Bedouins arrested were affiliated with the Islamic movement in Israel and not with Hamas. Their arrest, the officials said, came in accordance with a request submitted by the GSS, but the information pertaining to them was preliminary. They were arrested merely for interrogation, the sources said.

Kahalani claimed the two were "terrorists caught while on their way to an attack." Other sources within the security establishment said the two are not affiliated with Hamas at all. But reports still came from within claiming that at least one of them had intended to abduct a Knesset member. Security was beefed up at the premises and its chairman, Dan Tichon, told reporters that anyone who comes to the building "can see that.² The interrogation with the two reportedly yielded information that Mahmoud Abu Al Hunoud, one of the cell members who has not been arrested yet, planned to kidnap a Knesset member and detonate an explosives-loaded car in Tel Aviv's old central bus station. Abu Al Hunoud is wanted by Israel for his alleged role in the bombing attack in Mahaneh Yehuda market in West Jerusalem last year.

A report prepared by the GSS several months ago warned of growing extremism within the Bedouins in southern Israel. ³The Bedouins have developed distrust towards the establishment, and feel that a deliberate policy is being implemented to lead them into a backward state,² said the document. It noted that religious streams have grown more powerful within the Bedouins in the southern desert of Naqab (Negev) and that 16 mosques now exist in the area, twice the number several years ago.

The document admitted that points of friction between the Bedouin sector and the Israeli authorities made it easier to the Islamic movement to recruit supporters among Bedouin residents of southern Israel and to spread its influence in the area. ³The limited economic and social resources at the disposal of the Bedouins cause severe competition and strife surrounding their allocation,² said the document, whose authors recommended that large security and police forces be deployed for fear of a mass Bedouin uprising. Since the massacre at the Ibrahim Mosque in Hebron in 1994, Israeli experts noted, the ties between the Bedouins and the Islamic movement have grown closer.

Previous Stories:
  Two arrested on their way to suicide attack   (1/26/1998)
  A tamer Sheikh Yassin is back   (10/6/1997)
  Blast follow-up   (9/5/1997)

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