Last Update: 01/03/2005 11:34

Jihad planned to fire rockets at Afula, attack J'lem school
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/546518.html
By Amos Harel, Roni Singer and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies



Islamic Jihad terrorists in Jenin planned a serious of attacks on Israeli
targets
including the firing of rockets at the city of Afula and a shooting attack
inside
a Jerusalem school.



The attacks were foiled by Israeli security forces before they could advance
beyond the planning stage.

The details of the planned attacks came to light during the interrogation of
Jibril Zubeidi, an Islamic Jihad operative in Jenin and the brother of the
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades commander in the northern West Bank city, Zakariya
Zubeidi.

The Shin Bet revealed on Tuesday that Jibril Zubeidi was arrested on December
30.

He told investigators about three attacks his cell had planned and they were
subsequently prevented.

According to Zubeidi, there was a planned attempt to smuggle rocket launchers
into Israel in the area between Afula and the northern boundary of the West Bank
and from there fire rockets at the city.

However, the Islamic Jihad men ran into technical difficulties during attempts
to
develop Qassam rockets in the Jenin area.

The cell also planned to send two terrorists to carry out a shooting attack on a
school in the French Hill section of Jerusalem.

The third attack they planned was the detonation of a car bomb adjacent to an
Israel Defense Forces checkpoint in the seam line area.

Car bomb found by IDF largest used militants in 4 years
The car bomb discovered by Israel Defense Forces troops in the West Bank on
Monday contained half a ton of explosives, the army said Tuesday, making it the
largest bomb used by Palestinian militants in more than four years of violence.

IDF troops in the area between Jenin and Tul Karm on Monday found and destroyed
the booby-trapped car, believed to have been assembled by the Islamic Jihad cell
behind Friday's suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

The car bomb, initially spotted by an alert company commander from the Nahal
Brigade, was neutralized in a controlled explosion by sappers. An investigation
now is trying to determine whether it was planned for use inside Israel or
against Israeli targets in the West Bank.

Regional commander Colonel Oren Avman said the bomb contained some 500 kilograms
(1,100 pounds) of explosives. "Even and armored vehicle or bus could not
withstand such a huge bomb," he told Army Radio.

Avman said the officer who discovered the car bomb, by noticing wires sticking
out, prevented "a huge disaster."

Two guards hurt in West Bank shooting
Two civilian security guards were wounded Monday night in a shooting attack
while
patrolling in a security vehicle in the community of Kfar Oranim-Menorah,
northeast of Modi'in. One sustained moderate injuries, the other was lightly
wounded. They were taken to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

Close to 9:15 P.M., shots were fired from an ambush on the security vehicle as
it
traveled a patrol route on the eastern flank of the community, which is over the
Green Line but alongside it. The patrol route is fairly close to the Palestinian
villages of Kharbata and Beit Ghur al-Tahta to the east.

According to the preliminary investigation, the shooting occurred close to the
Palestinian village Safa, about five kilometers east of the Green Line.

The deputy security coordinator for Kfar Oranim-Menorah was moderately wounded
and a security guard employed by a civilian firm who was in the vehicle was
lightly wounded. The shooters fled.

Large army and police forces arrived on the scene and searched for the shooters,
helped by flares and a helicopter.

A member of the community's security team told Haaretz Monday that when he
arrived on the scene shortly after the shooting, he saw one of the guards lying
on his back and unable to move, while the second guard was standing by the
vehicle. Both were conscious and spoke with the medical crew that had arrived
immediately.



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