Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat hinted yesterday Israel was behind the massive suicide attacks in Sinai last week and said the PA is in discussions with the Egyptian government concerning the charge.
Thursday’s massive bomb attack on a Red Sea resort in Taba, just across the border in Egypt, left about three dozen people dead.
Referencing Israel’s Shin Bet head Avi Dichter’s warning about the possibility of an attack on Israeli tourists in Sinai a few weeks before the bombings occurred, Arafat said last night, “These are important statements. Why didn’t he inform us and the Egyptians about the information? What happened in Taba is a big crime.”
A senior PA official later denied that Arafat had accused Israel of masterminding the attacks, explaining he was only raising questions about “exactly what the Israelis know about the plans in advance.”
“We are only saying if Israel had concrete evidence that someone was planning an attack, how come it didn’t share this information with the Egyptian authorities?” he explained. “Isn’t this peculiar?”
Meanwhile Israel formally abandoned hope yesterday of finding any survivors at the attack site. After three days of searching the ruins of the seaside complex, Israeli soldiers and volunteer medics packed up their heavy equipment and the scraper-type devices used to comb for scraps of human flesh at the scenes of countless suicide bombings inside Israel.
The Israeli pullout, marked by a solemn ceremony as darkness fell, ended a search-and-rescue effort staged in concert with Egyptian forces.
Our sacred work here is done,” Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, who commanded the Israeli rescue effort, said.
Israeli media and The Associated Press, citing investigators, reported yesterday that a Bedouin tribesman had confessed to selling explosives that might have been used in three car bombings targeting Israeli tourists at Taba and two smaller Red Sea resorts. Several dozen Bedouins have been rounded up by Egyptian police for questioning.
Israelis made up the bulk of the 34 known dead, but victims also included Egyptians, Italians and Russians, officials said.
