Israel nabs Palestinian boys planning attacks
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH


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Samaria district police report the arrest Thursday of 3 youngsters age 14 to 16
from the West Bank village of Tubas.

The three had in their possession makeshift firearms, and admitted their intent
to perpetrate a shooting attack in Afula.

They were apprehended at the Jalameh roadblock by military police, and told
investigators that they had been recruited by a local Islamic Jihad official,
who also dispatched them to Afula.

The two also fabricated makeshift handguns and confessed to throwing rocks at
passing cars

The three planned to carry out a suicide attack out of anger over Israel's West
Bank barrier, relatives told Associated Press Sunday.

They are among the youngest ever arrested for planning suicide attacks. Parents
of one of the boys expressed outraged that militant groups had taken to drafting
young boys to carry out suicide attacks.

Tarek's parents were outraged and criticized Islamic Jihad for conscripting such
young boys to their ranks.

"My son doesn't know how to write such a letter and never belonged to any
groups. Someone older wrote this letter for him," said his mother, Amira Abu
Mahsen.

Mohammed Abu Mahsen said two men in their mid-20s looked for his young son last
week and he didn't know why.

"Now I know why they were looking for my young son," Abu Mahsen said. "I will
complain to the Palestinian intelligence to find whoever wanted to send my son
... I have to find out who these people are who wanted to send my son, my young
son."

Most suicide bombers have been in their 20s. The youngest was 16 years old.

The army did not immediately comment.

Mohammed Abu Mahsen said his 14-year-old son, Tarek, along with his friends,
Jaffer Hussein, 13, and Ibrahim Suafta, 16, left a letter saying they planned to
carry out a shooting attack at an Israeli military checkpoint or army base, he
said.

"I want to carry out an attack against (Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's fence.
This fence, we will blow it up also, the Islamic Jihad youth movement," Tarek
wrote in the letter.

"We want you to give out candies and don't cry for us and hold a big
demonstration," he added, referring to traditional salutes given to "martyrs"
who die for the Palestinian cause.

The 13-year-olds claimed to be members of Islamic Jihad, while Suafta said he
belonged to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a militant group linked to Yasser
Arafat's Fatah movement, family members said.




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