Ha'aretz

07:54 31/10/2001 Last update - 15:45 31/10/2001

IDF slays Hamas commander, seizes potential suicide bomber

By Amos Harel, Baruch Kra, Ha'aretz Correspondents, and Agencies

An IDF helicopter missile strike killed a Hamas military commander in the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, hours after troops backed by tanks and gunships entered Palestinian territory near Jenin to seize an Islamic Jihad militant believed on the verge of carrying out a suicide bombing against Israel.

Police reinforcements were on "unprecedented alert" in a hunt for a second potential suicide bomber believed at large in one of the Israeli Arab towns near Kfar Saba. Traffic was stopped in entrances to the towns of Tira and Taibeh in the wake of "very 'hot' warnings" based on intelligence information.

Palestinian witnesses in Hebron said Hamas militant Jamil Jadallah, 25, was killed and his body dismembered when missiles hit a car in which he was travelling.

Security sources confirmed that Israel had carried out the killing, saying that Jadallah was responsible for the killing of two Israelis, one in Hebron and one in Moshav Ora in 1998. They also said he was in the process of assembling a car bomb to carry out a mass attack.

Army radio reported that Jadallah also bore responsibility for major terrorist attacks in recent months, including deadly bombings of Tel Aviv’s Dolphinarium disco, Jerusalem’s Sbarro pizzeria, the Netanya railroad station and the Kanyon haSharon mall in Netanya.

Witnesses said rescue workers at the scene were collecting Jadallah's body parts.

In the West Bank village of Arabe near the militant hotbed town of Jenin, IDF special forces entered Palestinian Authority territory to raid the West Bank village of Arabe near Jenin early Wednesday, seizing a suspected Islamic Jihad suicide bomber "poised to strike," Israeli security officials said.

In all, seven suspected Palestinian militants were arrested and two Palestinians were reported wounded in the Arabe operation. Security officials said that IDF special forces and paratroopers arrested Mujahad Jalaboush, whom they described as a suicide bomber on the threshold of an immediate mission, and his commander, Nabil Mgiera, an Islamic Jihad militant on Israel's most-wanted list.

Also seized were Mgeira's two brothers, Islamic Jihad sources said. Witnesses said two activists from Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction also were detained, as were a member of the militant Muslim Hamas movement and a fourth suspected Islamic Jihad activist.

The Sharon area, not far from Jenin, has been a frequent target of Palestinian militants, many of them based in the northern West Bank city.

Especially high alerts were in effect in Hadera, Pardes Hana, Binyamina and Zikhron Yaakov, Israel Radio said.

Palestinian sources said two Palestinians were wounded in exchanges of fire when the force entered the village before dawn. They said helicopter gunships, tanks and other armored vehicles participated in the raid.

The army confirmed the operation had taken place, but released no details.

In Tulkarm, one of the West Bank cities where Israeli blockades imposed after the assassination of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi were still in effect, soldiers shot and killed Hamas member Abdullah Jaroushi, witnesses told Reuters in what a Hamas source called an assassination attempt. The army had no immediate comment.

IDF troops also imposed curfews Wednesday on a number of West Bank villages.

The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed four Israeli women in the northern town of Hadera on Sunday. The arrest last week of a large Islamic Jihad cell in Jilaboun village may have yielded information on the whereabouts of suspects in Arabe, Israel Radio said.

The alert status in the Sharon area, near the 1967 Green Line Border went into effect Tuesday. Police forces placed roadblocks at the entrances to several towns in the area and closed down the market in Baka al Garbiyeh. They also beefed up forces near Nahal Iron, Zichron Ya'akov, Binyamina and Hadera.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001