Sunday, August 01, 2010

'We will resume suicide attacks'


KHALED ABU TOAMEH
08/01/2010 18:29

Islamic Jihad plans attacks from West Bank after IAF Gaza raids.


The Islamic Jihad organization said on Sunday that it has decided to resume suicide attacks against Israel from the West Bank.

The threat came in response to attacks launched by IAF planes on the Gaza Strip following the firing of rockets on Israel in the past few days. The group, however, admitted that it has become very difficult to launch suicide attacks out of the West Bank because of security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

Islamic Jihad has only a few hundred followers in the West Bank. Members of the group have in the past carried out a number of suicide bombings in Israel.

PA security forces have arrested many of the group's members in the West Bank. The IDF has also arrested dozens of Islamic Jihad activists in recent years.

"Suicide operations require places for training and preparing explosive belts," said Abu Ahmed, spokesman for the Al-Quds Battalions, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. "It's very difficult to do these things because of the policy of security coordination and the arrest of [would-be] suicide bombers."

He said that members of his group were "suffering a lot" in the West bank because of the PA's security measures and "persecution."

Abu Ahmed described the PA's crackdown as a "national crime" against Palestinians.

Hamas blames Arab League for recent Israeli attacks in Gaza

Hamas, meanwhile, held the Arab League responsible for the latest escalation because of its decision to endorse direct talks with Israel.

"Our people in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavy price for the sin and mistake committed by the Arab League foreign ministers who gave a green light to the Palestinian Authority to launch direct negotiations with the occupation government," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "Israel was in need of a cover for its continued aggression against our people."

Barhoum accused PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League of "surrendering" to US and Israeli pressure.

"The decision [to endorse direct talks] will seriously damage the interests of the Palestinians," he said. "It will also have dangerous repercussions on the rights of the Palestinians."

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