JERUSALEM – The Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Israel that wounded almost 50 yesterday was backed by Syria in conjunction with Hezbollah militants, security sources told WND.
In the first bombing since Israel’s evacuation of Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip, an unidentified terrorist yesterday blew himself up after being halted from boarding a bus in the Negev town of Be’er Sheva. Two security guards and 46 others were wounded in the attack. Islamic Jihad quickly claimed responsibility.
The bomber had aroused the suspicions of the driver of a crowded bus, who reportedly noticed the terrorist was sweating profusely and carrying a heavy load. The driver quickly alerted security guards, who pursued the attacker until he set off the bomb, seriously wounding the guards and lightly to moderately wounding many nearby.
Islamic Jihad said the bombing was a revenge attack for an Israeli Defense Forces anti-terrorist raid in Talkarm last week that killed four Jihad members, including a senior leader of the group. A statement also claimed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah took part in the attack, but that has not been verified.
Security sources told WND the Islamic Jihad cell responsible for the bombing is being directed and funded in part by Syria using Hezbollah militants. The sources said Hezbollah forces at the direction of Syria has created a terror apparatus of Palestinian militants in the West Bank, mostly Jihad members, receiving full-time salaries from the Lebanese group.
Palestinian security has previously intercepted a series of communications, including phone calls and e-mails, between Hezbollah and West Bank terrorists indicating Hezbollah had been trying to recruit suicide bombers to carry out attacks, sources say.
One official said intercepted bank transactions suggested Hezbollah had raised its cash offers to Palestinian terrorists and is now willing to pay $100,000 for a suicide bombing operation. In the past, information indicated Hezbollah would pay $20,000 for such attacks.
The same Islamic Jihad cell carried out terror attacks on a busy shopping mall in Netanya in July, killing 5 and wounding 90, and an earlier bombing of the Stage nightclub in Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah is primarily backed by Syria and Iran.
Many senior Islamic Jihad leaders are currently operating openly from Damascus.
The news comes after a report in Lebanon’s English-language Daily Star newspaper yesterday stated rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel last week are Iranian-made Fajr 3 models, marking the first time shells imported from Tehran were used against Israel.
“Both Syria and Iran are working together to destabilize Israel,” said a security source, who told WND the Iranian rocket claim is being investigated.
Abbas condemned yesterday’s bombing, and claimed Islamic Jihad is still committed to a truce he signed last February in Egypt with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
But as WND reported, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and members of various Palestinian terror groups met last week in Damascus and agreed “resistance” against Israel would continue and would be coordinated at the national level until the Jewish state evacuates “all territories” – code for Israel’s destruction.
Qurei, who publicly pledged not to disarm Hamas or Jihad, also allegedly discussed other ways of cooperating with the terror groups after Israel’s Gaza evacuation is completed, and stressed that the focus of the Palestinian struggle must be turned to the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
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