Palestinian woman shot dead by Israeli occupation troops near Ramallah

03/12/2002| IslamWeb

A Palestinian woman was killed when Israeli occupation troops opened fire on her car at an entrance to the West Bank city of Ramallah.The incident took place near the Beit El Jewish settlement, northeast of Ramallah, as Palestinians were queuing up to enter the West Bank city where the curfew had been lifted by the occupation army, Palestinian medical sources said Tuesday.

They added that her car was stopped when the occupation soldiers opened fire.

Israel: Kenya Attacks Not Forseen

Israeli intelligence had advance warning that terror groups were operating in Kenya but did not have information that they were planning to attack Israeli targets, an occupation army intelligence chief said.

On Tuesday, Palestinian resistance groups refused to condone last week's attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, and said they were not interested in extending their conflict with Israel to outside the immediate region.

The chief of research in Israel's military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Yossi Kupperwasser, told a parliamentary committee Monday that Israel did not have specific information - like Germany and Australia did - that attacks were being planned in Mombasa, Knesset spokesman Giora Pordes said Tuesday.

Germany and Australia put out advisories in mid-November warning their citizens against visiting Mombasa, based on intelligence they had that terror groups were planning attacks on Western targets in the Kenyan port city.

Asked by a legislator whether Israel had similar information, Pordes quoted Kupperwasser as saying: "No, there was no concrete and exact information. There was general information, but not regarding Israeli targets, rather on the attempt to carry out an attack in Kenya. Israel was never mentioned."

Ten Kenyans, three Israelis and two or three suicide bombers were killed Thursday in an attack at the Paradise hotel near Mombasa. The hotel is owned by a British company, Paradise Mombasa Ltd., but hundreds of Israelis have bought time-share units there, according to Yigal Cohen, a Tel Aviv lawyer who handles sales in Israel.

Just minutes before the hotel bombing, two missiles were fired from shoulder-held launchers and narrowly missed an Israeli-owned Boeing 757 with 271 people onboard that had just taken off from Mombasa and was headed to Tel Aviv.

A statement attributed to al-Qaida and posted on an Islamic Web site claimed responsibility Monday for the two attacks. In Washington, U.S. officials said they considered the claim credible.

Danny Yatom, a former head of the Mossad, said that Israel receives so many warnings that most are not taken seriously.

"It's very, very hard ... to relate to specific information unless it's very clear and defined and the source is reliable," Yatom told Israel Radio Tuesday. If Israel had more concrete information, it would have acted to prevent the attacks, Yatom said.

Kupperwasser told the parliamentary committee that since the terror attack in the Indonesian resort of Bali, which killed nearly 200 people in October, Israel has been flooded with intelligence information from all over the world.

Israel's occupation army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, warned this week that al-Qaida's leader, Osama bin-Laden, is sending instructions to Palestinian resistance men in the West Bank and Gaza Strip , the Haaretz newspaper reported Tuesday.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez Azaam said Tuesday his group's "ideology and strategy is based on fighting the occupation and liberating the Palestinian lands.

"We have no interest in transferring the battle to any field outside Palestine," he said by phone from Gaza.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Abu Shanab also said his group had "no interest in engaging in battle with anyone else outside the land of Palestine," he said.

Islamic Jihad and Hamas have taken responsibility for scores of deadly attacks on Israelis. Fearful of being equated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, both groups condemned the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. But they have been silent following the attacks in Kenya.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Kenyan investigator collects evidence at the scene of last Thursday's devastating suicide bomb attack at the Paradise hotel in Kikambala north of Mombasa, Kenya Monday Dec, 2. 2002. Sixteen people were killed in the blast including the three suicide bombers. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)