Islamic Jihad Identifies Bomber & Sharon Delays U.S. Visit

06/06/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTS: Hamas & Islamic Jihad Vow to Continue Resistance Operations Until the Land of Palestine Is Liberated|| Islamic Jihad: Small But Deadly||Shin Bet Proposes Re-occupying Palestinian Territory Until So-called Security Fence Is Set up||Number of Israelis Killed in the Blast Now Put at 17||Katsav Wants International Community to Cut Off Ties with Arafat|| STORY: The Islamic Jihad identified the Resistance bomber who perpetrated Wednesday's attack Wednesday night as Hamzi Samudi of Jenin.

Israeli occupation authorities are seeking to determine how Samudi, who they believe entered Israel late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning crossed into Israel without being detected. (Read photo caption)

Israeli media reports added that the authorities are also seeking to determine who was responsible for preparing the bomb and dispatching Samudi to perpetrate the attack and if he received assistance from people inside Israel.

RESISTANCE ATTACKS TO CONTINUE UNTIL LIBERATION DAY

Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials meanwhile vowed to continue Resistance attacks against Israel until the land of Palestine is liberated. Abdullah Shami, a senior Islamic Jihad official in Gaza declared, "This is part of our resistance, a response to the crimes of the Israeli aggression." Ramadan Shalah, the Islamic Jihad leader in Damascus declared that the attack was planned to coincide with the 35th anniversary marking the Six Days War.

ISLAMIC JIHAD: SMALL BUT DEADLY

Small but deadly, the Palestinian Resistance group Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for the fiery bus bombing that killed 17 Israelis on Wednesday, has been behind some of the most lethal attacks against Israel since 1986.

Islamic Jihad members have set off bombs, attacked soldiers and thrown hand grenades at praying Jews. Dozens of Israelis have died in the attacks.

Islamic Jihad is the smaller of two violent Islamic movements in the West Bank and Gaza. The other, Hamas, runs charitable and educational programs as well as organizing attacks against Israel, while Islamic Jihad concentrates on attacks.

Based mainly in the Gaza Strip, with a stronghold in the West Bank town of Jenin, the group operates through small, well trained, well-equipped units.

Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip founded Islamic Jihad in Egypt in the late 1970s.

Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shalah, who is based in Damascus, Syria, spent many years as a political scientist in the United States.

He left the United States in 1995 after being suspected of money laundering and fund raising for Islamic Jihad, which is listed as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.

Abdullah Shami, the group's leader in the Gaza Strip, is a Muslim Scholar who is popular with residents of the area's impoverished cities and refugee camps.

SHARON WEIGHS RESPONSE TO ATTACK

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has meanwhile decided to delay his visit to the US by two days. According to Israel Radio he told the security cabinet that Israel is weighing how to respond to the attack at the Megiddo junction.

He is to leave Saturday night for talks in Washington on Monday with US President George W. Bush, Sharon's office said in a statement.

The ministers convened shortly after the attack for a meeting that had been originally scheduled to discuss the threat of escalation on the Lebanese border.

Several ministers have demanded that Israel expel Arafat.

However, the session broke up without a statement being released as to what new operative decisions if any were taken regarding a response to the bombing.

Sharon was quoted as telling the ministers "the Israeli response [to the attack] is being formulated now."

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer huddled with top occupation army and security officials afterwards to formulate the occupation army's response.

SHIN BET PROPOSES RE-OCCUPYING PALESTINIAN TERRITORY UNTIL FENCE IS SET UP

Avi Dichter, the head of the Shin Bet, Israel's Security Agency, has been lobbying for the last week for Israel to move deeper into the Palestinians areas and remain there until a buffer zone to include a fence and other physical and technological obstacles is set up along the Green Line to make terrorist incursions more difficult.

Sharon and Ben-Eliezer have favored pinpointed incursions based on intelligence information.

But Dichter's opinion gained some ground yesterday among ministers.

Education Minister Limor Livnat told reporters "there is a need to be present in Area A in a more significant manner, as was the case during operation Defensive Shield."

President Moshe Katsav demanded that the international community cut off all ties with Arafat.

PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli forensic volunteers carry a plastic bag out of a burnt bus, which was hit at the site of a deadly car bomb at Megiddo Junction in northern Israel Wednesday, June 5, 2002. An Islamic militant ignited a massive fireball when he blew himself up in a car packed with explosives alongside a crowded Israeli bus Wednesday. At least 16 passengers were killed and dozens wounded in the suicide attack marking the 35th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war. (AP Photo/ Yigal Lev