Islamic Jihad Chief Whacked In Bethlehem
J-Post:
Isreali troops and elite police counter-terror commandos killed four top terrorists in Bethlehem on Wednesday evening.
While attempting to arrest the men, who made up the Islamic Jihad’s leadership in the city, the troops came under fire near the Bethlehem Mukata (government building), and killed all four in a gun battle.
Palestinian claims that the fugitives were responsible for planning last week’s attack on Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, in which gunman Ala Abu Dhaim killed eight students, were flatly denied by Israeli security officials, who added that the troops had not planned to kill the fugitives.
Muhammad Shehadeh, 45, Ahmed Balbul, 48, Amad el-Kamel, 35 and Issa Zohara, 36, were all in direct contact with Islamic Jihad’s leadership in Syria and were following orders issued by the organization’s leaders there.
Shehadeh has been wanted by Israel for the past eight years for involvement in planning and executing terror attacks in which Israelis were killed and wounded.
The IDF said that Shehada was held responsible for a series of car bombs and suicide attacks throughout Jerusalem in the beginning of the decade. In November 2000, he sent the car bomb that exploded in downtown Jerusalem killing two people, including the daughter of then-minister Yitzhak Levy from the National Religious Party.
In March 2001, Shehada dispatched a car bomb to the Talpiyot neighborhood in Jerusalem which exploded and wounded five. Later that year he sent two suicide bombers who blew up in two separate incidents and injured close to 50 people.
When the men’s bodies were inspected, they were found to be carrying rifles and pistols.
On Wednesday morning, IDF troops killed another Islamic Jihad operative in a pre-dawn gun battle, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
Troops surrounded a house in the village of Saida, near Tulkarem, and demanded that its occupants come out, according to resident Abdel Karim Hammad, whose family lives in the house. Saleh Karkur, 27, a wanted Islamic Jihad gunman who was staying with the family, refused to come out, a gunfight erupted, and Karkur was shot and killed, Hammad said. The Israelis then demolished half of the house and arrested Hammad’s father for harboring a wanted gunman, he said.
Palestinian medics said they took the man’s body from the scene.
The IDF confirmed that the troops were trying to arrest a high-ranking commander in the village, and opened fire only when the man refused to surrender and began shooting at them.
In Gaza, Islamic Jihad released a statement saying Karkur was one of the group’s top West Bank commanders and threatened to avenge his death.
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we could call this yet another miracle performed in Bethlehem
March 12th, 2008 at 2:06 pmGreat job Israeli Defense Forces.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:22 pmAnother one bites the dust. Next.
Disobey the law, lose your house!
March 13th, 2008 at 4:52 am