JERUSALEM – Gunmen from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization called WND today to claim responsibility for the deadly shooting yesterday of two Israeli traffic police officers.
A top leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Fatah’s declared “military wing,” said the attack was carried out to avenge the Feb. 12, 2007, assassination of Hezbollah arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh.
He said the attack was perpetuated by members of what he called the Imad Mughniyeh Brigades, which he said is composed of Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades gunmen.
“The shooting was close to Mughniyeh’s death anniversary and is a reaction of Fatah for our allies in Hezbollah,” said the top Fatah Brigades leader.
“We in the Brigades want to clarify that all efforts of the U.S. and (PA Prime Minister Salam) Fayyad’s government to eliminate Fatah as a fighting movement won’t succeed. As long as the (Israeli) occupation continues, Fatah will be the leading power of resistance.”
The same Fatah Brigades terrorist leader who called WND said he called multiple other media outlets and identified himself fully. Still, the Israeli media is claiming an unknown group calling itself the “Imad Mughniyeh Group” took credit, without identifying the group as being part of Fatah.
Both U.S. and Israeli policy consider Fatah to be moderate.
Olmert previously granted temporary amnesty to hundreds of terrorists on condition they disarm, refrain from attacks and spend three months in PA detention facilities and another three months confined to the West Bank city in which they reside. If the terrorists completed their side of the deal, Olmert’s office said it would grant permanent amnesty, allowing them freedom of movement in the West Bank and taking them off Israel’s most wanted list of terrorists to ensure they are not arrested.
In spite of rampant Israeli media reports that many of the pardoned terrorists refused to disarm and continued carrying out attacks, Olmert granted many full amnesty, meaning they are treated as ordinary Palestinian citizens and not wanted men.
The two slain police officers, identified as David Rabinowitz and Yehezkel Ramzamker, were killed while on patrol near the settlement of Masu’a in the northern West Bank.
An Israel Police spokesman told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that according to an initial investigation, gunmen opened fire on the patrol car at close range, causing the officers to lose control of the vehicle.
“The two had been killed by gunshots and the main suspicion points to a nationalistic motive,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
