Peace partner’s ‘military wing’ claims terror attacks

January 24, 2008

TEL AVIV – While Israeli negotiators held peace talks this week with members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization, the Abbas’ declared military wing called WND to take credit for two simultaneous terror attacks in the vicinity of Jerusalem today.

Terrorists fired on Israelis at the entrance to the Shoafat refugee camp north of Jerusalem today, injuring two people. One was critically wounded and an hour later died, according to YnetNews.com.

At the same time, two terrorists stabbed two Israelis at the settlement of Kfar Etzion. The terrorists were shot and killed. One Israeli at Kfar Etzion sustained moderate wounds and another two were lightly wounded.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Abbas’ Fatah party, called to take credit for the two attacks, saying they were carried out by an Al Aqsa cell calling itself the Black September Brigades.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is listed by the State Department as a terror group. It took responsibility, along with the Islamic Jihad terror organization, for every suicide bombing in Israel in 2005 and 2006 and for thousands of shootings and rocket attacks.

Strategic West Bank shootings apparently have become part of a Brigades strategy following November’s U.S.-backed Annapolis summit at which Prime Minister Ehud Olmert committed to negotiations with Fatah aimed at creating a Palestinian state before the end of the year. Now the shootings may have moved onto Arab sections of Jerusalem likely slated for Israeli evacuation according to the Annapolis framework.

Last week, WND reported the Brigades took credit for a shooting attack against an Israeli motorist near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

That attack followed a visit to the region earlier this month by President Bush in which the U.S. leader termed Abbas a “negotiating partner” and urged Israel to create a Palestinian state before the end of the year.

Senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met the past few days to further the negotiations.

Even with negotiations at full pace, Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has been quite active.

WND reported that days before Abbas’ departed to the Annapolis meeting, the Brigades took credit for a West Bank shooting attack that killed Israeli civilian Ido Zoldan.

The Israel Defense Forces waited for two weeks – until after the Annapolis summit – before releasing for publication an announcement that Israeli security agents caught the culprits of the Zoldan murder immediately following the attack. The culprits were a cell of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades whose members double as paid police officers for Abbas’ Fatah organization.

Then, three weeks ago, four armed Palestinians driving a jeep killed off-duty Israeli soldiers Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin as they were hiking with a woman just outside Hebron. Amihai and Rubin, both in their early 20s, managed to return fire before they died, reportedly killing one of the terrorists and injuring another. Their female companion was uninjured.

Immediately following the attack, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility during a news conference from the Gaza Strip and in a WND interview. Nevertheless, most major Israeli daily newspapers and television networks reported Hamas carried out the killings. Later, Israel’s Shin Bet Security Services announced the two main culprits in the attack were members of Fatah’s security forces and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

To interview Aaron Klein, contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail, or call 973-272-2861.

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