Terror cell arrested in Bethlehem hospital [terrorists used it to hide and plan terror attacks]

Jerusalem Post ^ | Apr. 1, 2004 | MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

[yonif]

An elite Israel Defense Forces unit, working together with the Shin Bet, arrested 12 Palestinian fugitives, some members of the Palestinian intelligence and preventive forces, who hid out in a local psychiatric hospital in the Dehaisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem and engaged in gun battles with soldiers.

Before dawn on Thursday, acting on intelligence information, security forces surrounded the psychiatric hospital and using loudspeakers called on the fugitives to surrender. In response the Palestinians opened fire at the troops and engaged in a gun battle with soldiers that lasted over an hour before the Palestinians surrendered.

Security forces found three hand guns and a Kalashnikov rifle in the possession of some of the suspects.

Among those detained are terrorists who planned to launch suicide bomb attacks during the Pessah holiday and others involved in shooting and bomb attacks against Israelis, security officials told The Jerusalem Post.

Security officials said nine of the 12 Palestinians arrested are senior fugitives affiliated with the Tanzim and Fatah Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades of the Bethlehem area. Some of these terrorist were also members of the Palestinian Authority intelligence and preventive forces, who were transferred to the city in order to restore calm and combat terror after security control of the city was handed over to the PA in the summer 2002.

A senior security official told The Jerusalem Post the fugitives hid out in the hospital for a number of months, during which they planned terror attacks.

"We are talking of Palestinian security officials, whose job was to combat terror, but instead instigated and orchestrated attacks. Their arrest, without a doubt, thwarted suicide bomb attacks that were to have been launched in Jerusalem over Pessah," the official said.

Israel criticized the terrorists for hiding in the hospital.

"These terrorists continue to use their own people as human shields and continue to make cynical use of hospitals and other civilian installations for the purpose of seeking refuge and for the purpose of establishing staging points for attacks against Israel," David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office told AP.

Several times in the past, terrorists hiding from troops have holed up in hospitals and holy places, including Bethlehem's Church of Nativity, where tradition says Jesus was born.

According to the official, among those arrested is Jamal Hamamra, 37, of the West Bank town of Hussan, who served in the Palestinian intelligence forces and planned to carry out a suicide bomb attack in Jerusalem.

"Hamamra is one of the most senior terrorists we arrested," the official said. "Not only was he planning an attack in the coming days, but he was also involved in recent months in attempts to dispatch suicide bombers to Jerusalem. In some cases these attempts were foiled by security forces, in some cases they weren't," he added.

Along with Hamamra, IDF troops arrested his deputy, Rabia Rabia, 24, who also served of the Palestinian intelligence forces and was involved in shooting and bomb attacks in the area.

Names of others arrested include Adel Hajazi,33, of Bethlehem, a member of the Tanzim involved in numerous attacks; Zahran Zidat,39, a senior Tanzim fugitive from Hebron, involved in numerous attacks and head of the cell that fled and sought refuge in Bethlehem; Anan Tsalah,25, of El Khader, head of the local Tanzim cell and involved in planning and perpetrating attacks; Nasser Jadia,31, of Bani Naim, a member of the Hebron Tanzim cell; Hani Bashir, 23, of Dehaishe, a senior Tanzim member of the Bethlehem area, considered an expert in bomb making, who established a Hamas cell in the Bethlehem area; Hatem Yusef, 28, of Dahariya, a senior member of the cell set up by Bashir; and Issa Harimi, 21, of Bethlehem, who was wounded last April when a bomb he was preparing for an attack blew up prematurely.

On Wednesday, a senior IDF official said that IDF forces have resumed operating in Bethlehem, something they refrained from doing since the city was handed over to Palestinian security control last year. The official added that Palestinian Authority failed to crack down on terrorists and arrest those seeking to launch attacks in Israel.

The official said that IDF forces operate in all the Palestinian cities in the West Bank in accordance with the need, but do not maintain a permanent presence in any city. He said that the IDF has complete freedom of movement to act where necessary.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, security forces arrested five Palestinian fugitives in raids in Hebron, Anabta east of Tulkarm and in Bethlehem.

In the Gaza Strip, shots were fired at an IDF post near Rafah Yam in Gush Katif. No one was wounded in the attack.

[yonif]

Will the media report this?

Another thing to point out that many of these terrorists are members of the "security forces" the world continues to send money to in the hopes they crack down on terrorism, terrorism they themselves take part in. What a joke.

[yonif]

"We are talking of Palestinian security officials, whose job was to combat terror, but instead instigated and orchestrated attacks. Their arrest, without a doubt, thwarted suicide bomb attacks that were to have been launched in Jerusalem over Pessah," the official said.

These people are funded by the EU, the UN, and the US. The "policemen." They are also under the guise of the Palestinian Authority terrorist regime, headed by Arafat and his "prime minister."

[TopQuark]

Collin Powel will undoubtedly call on Israel to exercise restraint and release the prisoners.

[breakem]

at some future date, the Isreali government will release dozens of prisoners at one time for the release of one or two soldiers. These killers will be amongst them.

[Diogenesis]

---

ONLY A PARTIAL LIST OF TERRORIST ACTIVITIES

1968 Robert Kennedy assassinated
1972 Munich Olympics Sep-5,1972 (Black September)
1976 Entebbe Hostage Crisis, June 27, 1976
1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, Nov. 4, 1979 444 days
1979 Grand Mosque Seizure, Nov 20,1979
1981 Assassination of Egyptian President, Oct 6,1981
1982 Assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister, Sept 14, 1982
1983 Bombing of US Embassy in Beirut6, April 18,1983
1983 Bombing of Maring Barricks, Beruit, Oct 23,1983
1984 Hizballah Restaurant Bombing, April 12,1984
1985 Egyptian Airliner Hijacking, Nov 23,1985
1985 Rome Airport murders
1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacked, U.S. Navy diver murdered
1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, Homacidal maniac lived in saddams Iraq
1986 Aircraft Bombing in Greece, March 30, 1986
1988 Pan Am 747 Flight 103 Bombing, Lockerbie, 100's murdered
1988 Berlin Discoteque Bombing, Dec 21,1988
1992 Bombing in Israeli Embassy in Argentina, March 17,1992
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr., April 14,1993
1993 First World Trade Center bombing, February 26th, 7 Killed, Hundreds injured, Billions
1994 Air France Hijacking, Dec 24,1994
1995 Attack on US Diplomats in Pakistan, Mar 8,1995
1995 Saudi Military Installation Attack, Nov 13, 1995
1995 Kashmiri Hostage taking, July 4,1995
1996 Khobar Towers attack
1996 Sudanese Missionarys Kidnapping, Aug 17,1996
1996 Paris Subway Explosion, Dec 3,1996
1997 Israeli Shopping Mall Bombing, Sept 4, 1997
1997 Yemeni Kidnappings, Oct 30,1997
1998 Somali Hostage taking crisis, April 15,1998
1998 U.S. Embassy Bombing in Peru, Jan 15, 1998
1998 U.S. Kenya Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1998 U.S. Tanzania Embassy blown up, 100's murdered
1999 Plot to blow up Space Needle (thwarted)
2000 USS Cole attacked, many U.S. Navy sailors murdered
2000-2003 Intifada against Israel - 100's dead and injured
2000 Manila Bombing, Dec 30,2000
2001 4 Commercial airliners hijacked, 250+ murdered
2001 World Trade Center attacked, 2800+ murdered
2001 Flight 93 murders
2001 Pentagon attacked, 180+ murdered
2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl, kidnapped and murdered
2002 Philippines American missionary, Filipino nurse killed
2002 July 4, El Al attack Los Angeles LAX, several murdered
2002 Bali bombing - 200 dead, 300 injured
2002 Yemen, French Oil Tanker attacked
2002 Marines attacked / murdered in Kuwait
2002 Washington D.C. sniper
2002 Russian Theater attacked, 100+ dead
2002 Nigerian riots against Miss World Pageant, 200 dead, dozens injured
2002 Mombasa Hotel Attacked, 12 dead, dozens injured
2002 Israeli Boeing 757 attacked by missiles, fortunately no one injured
2002 August Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia. 12 dead, dozens injured.
2003 Rusian concert bombing
2003 Phillipines airport and market bombing
2003 Foiled SAM plot in the USA
2003 UN Baghdad HQ Bombing
on and on and on and on it goes .........

[tessalu]

This does not surprise me at all.

[yonif]

The US must stop sending aid to their "security forces"

[Dialup Llama]

>An elite Israel Defense Forces unit, working together with the Shin Bet, arrested 12 Palestinian fugitives, some members of the Palestinian intelligence and preventive forces, who hid out in a local psychiatric hospital in the Dehaisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem and engaged in gun battles with soldiers.

At least they hid out at the appropriate facility. Just one question, how did the IDF tell the difference between the crazy Palestinians and the ones just hiding out there?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Monday is Passover. If there is a homicide attack on Monday may the bombs of the IDF not pass over Arafats compound come Tuesday.

[breakem]

in other words, don't Passover. My little pun.

[Robert_Paulson2]

"We are talking of Palestinian security officials, whose job was to combat terror, but instead instigated and orchestrated attacks. Their arrest, without a doubt, thwarted suicide bomb attacks that were to have been launched in Jerusalem over Pessah," the official said.

---

This is the nature of Islam.
Lies and deceit in order to kill the kufir, even posing as our allies in the war on terror, or pretending to be peace officers that trying to "fight terror elements." The terrorists in Iraq, are often the very folks we approved for police positions.

I won't be surprised when the fallujah terrorists are hunted down, that the majority of them were folks we were trusting to help keep the radicals in line.

They often end up being plants.
To trust (like merikuns tend to) or to terminate in an unquenchable burst of 1500 degree fire and radiation...

the latter is the only way to kill the weeds.
the former puts our GOOD people at risk.

I am leaning more every day, to the nuclear solution, at several adder's dens on this planet. Pipes said only 10 percent were radicalized islamics. If there be 1,100,000,000 islamics, that means that 110 MILLION are radicalized... and we are going to have to get serious about exterminating them, faster than 10-20 a day. AS it stands we are only getting less than one half of one percent of the bad guys.

We ought to have a list of radical leaders, imams, sheiks, spiritual leaders... and known radical mosques, and homes of its members... and we ought to take out the trash starting at the top, with each action against us.

there is no way to kill 110 million terrorists, without escalating things.
anyone who thinks islam can pacify itself in the current environment... is fooling themselves.
Israelis included.
Somebody has got to take out the trash.

[AlaskaErik]

Add to your long list the French airliner that was destroyed over Africa not too long after Pan Am 103.

[tessalu]

The Palestinians are funded by the UN, the EU, and the USA.
We support them, so they do not have to work and can terrorize full time. We are indirectly to blame for a lot of this terrorism.

[Viking2002]

Hospitals. Mosques. Children. It just goes to show that your average Mooslim terrorist doesn't belong to the human race, and should be exterminated upon contact.

[DannyTN]

I hope they get the terrorists in the rest of the Palestinian mental ward.