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Photo: AP
IDF forces at Karni crossing following foiled attack
Photo: AP

Shin Bet: Hamas involved in attempted Karni attack

Intelligence organization says last Wednesday’s terror attack, which was foiled by Palestinian security forces, was masterminded by senior Hamas members, carried out by Popular Resistance Committees cell

Cleared for publication: A Popular Resistance Committees cell is behind the attempted terror attack at the Karni crossing in Gaza last week.

 

According to a Shin Bet investigation into the incident, the attack was masterminded by senior Hamas members, including Ahmed Anzur, the group’s leader in north Gaza, as well as by Ahmed Jabriya, a senior member of Hamas’ military wing.

 

During last Wednesday’s incident, Palestinians tried to drive a car bomb into the Karni crossing, but were intercepted by Palestinian security officers who opened fire at the vehicle.

 

The terrorists fled the scene and Palestinian sappers were dispatched to tend to the booby-trapped car.

 

The terrorists had apparently planned to blow up the car, creating an opening in the wall separating the Israeli and Palestinian sides of the crossing, and then open fire at crossing employees from two other vehicles.

 

International pressure

 

A similar attack took place in Karni a year and-a-half ago; six employees were killed.

 

Security establishment officials have mentioned the cooperation between Hamas and the Resistance Committees as an opportunity for the ruling terror group to use the Committees as a “quiet executive wing” for attacking Israel. Hamas is supplying the Committees with weapons and training, officials said.

 

Numerous alerts regarding possible attacks at Karni were received in the past few months, prompting the security establishment to close the crossing. The international community consequently began to apply pressure in Israel, claiming it is preventing the transfer of goods to Gaza and thus creating a severe economic crisis in the Palestinian Authority.

 

Israel, in turn, offered to open the Sufah crossing as an alternative, but the Palestinians rejected the plan, claiming it was political, not security considerations that were behind the Karni closure.

 

Israel denied these claims and even transferred to the Palestinians information regarding threats of terror attacks on the site.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.30.06, 20:56
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