Israeli security services said they have arrested a "six-man Palestinian cell" which allegedly carried out a series of attacks in Israeli towns in April, reported Israel Radio on Sunday.
"The six-man cell is suspected of having carried out five bomb attacks, including two in Hod Hasharon, one in Netanya and one in Sha'arei Tikva," said the radio station.
Other reports added that the cell had allegedly activated two bombs in Kfar Sava.
The cell members were arrested in Hableh village near Qalqilya, five minutes from Kfar Sava.
Press reports said Sunday that they belonged to Fateh, and that a seventh member was killed by Israeli forces while hunting the group.
The oldest activist in the cell is 51, and the youngest is 18, the reports said, citing the police as saying that the activists planned to put a bomb in a pub and in a bus station where Israeli soldiers wait for buses to take them to their units.
Israel demands, and the US recommends, that the PA hunt down and send back to jail 20-30 Islamists allegedly involved in attacks against Israel.
The activists were reportedly freed during the Intifada and are blamed for masterminding and carrying out anti-Israeli attacks in the Occupied Territories and inside the Green Line.
Since the outbreak of the latest Israeli-Palestinian conflict last September, Reuters reports that Palestinians have killed approximately 88 Israelis with weapons ranging from stones and knives to machineguns and car bombs. The latest suicide bombing raises that toll by at least 20. Israeli military sources have reported well over 600 injuries to Israelis of Jewish descent.
In the same time period, according to CNN, Israeli soldiers and armed Jewish settlers have killed 13 Arab Israelis and 450 Palestinians with weapons ranging from machineguns and tanks to US-made Apache helicopter gunships and F-16s. The most recent Israeli tank attack raises that death toll to 453.
According to Amnesty International, nearly 100 of the Palestinians killed were children.
In addition, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has reported over 14,000 Palestinians wounded.
Jewish author Noam Chomsky, who according to a New York Times Book Review article is “arguably the most important intellectual alive,” has been quoted as saying: “State terrorism is an extreme form of terrorism, generally much worse than individual terrorism because it has the resources of a state behind it.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
