Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 18, 2002

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli troops arrested nine Palestinians suspected of terrorist activity, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday. The arrests come after two days of terror attacks in the West Bank and Israel that have claimed the lives of at least 11 civilians.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, killing at least three civilians and wounding more than 40, police said. Authorities identified one of the three victims as Adrian Andres, 30, of Romania, the Israeli news Web site Ha'aretz reported. The identities of the other two victims have not been announced.

The attack came a day after an armored bus loaded with Jewish settlers near the West Bank settlement of Emanuel was ambushed, killing eight people and wounding 15 others.

Israel said one of those arrested Thursday was Abu Al Rob, a leading Palestinian Islamic Jihad activist. The group has claimed responsibility for the double suicide attack, but Israeli police said they are not taking the claim seriously.

The overnight arrests in the West Bank and Gaza were not directly related to this week's terror attacks.

Israeli forces arrested one Palestinian in the central Gaza town of Muazi, where an arms cache was found, the IDF said.

In West Bank operations, two Palestinians were arrested in the village of Zera near Nablus, two in the village of Awarta, one in Kafin near Tulkarem and two in Hizme north of Jerusalem.

The suspects were transferred to Israeli security services for questioning, according to the IDF.

Bombers were only 50 feet apart

In Wednesday night's terror attack, two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance to a convenience store in southern Tel Aviv.

The bombers clearly planned to blow themselves up in tandem -- "one here and one there with people in the middle," said Israeli police spokesman Gil Kleiman.

The attackers were only about 50 feet apart when they detonated their explosives. Both were killed, Kleiman said.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the double bombing. The militant group is dedicated to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel. It has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department.

Israeli and Palestinian government officials immediately condemned the attack, both calling for some political way to end the violence. More than 230 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks so far this year.

The area of Neve Sha'anan is a poorer part of Tel Aviv, home to many immigrant workers. It is filled with nightlife, including cafes, restaurants and busy pedestrian walkways. (Full story)

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Danny Shek expressed measured anger at the Palestinian Authority for doing "nothing" to stop the terrorist attacks.

"The Palestinian Authority is in the very least guilty of neglect, of not doing enough against it," he said.

"This is the responsibility of the leadership of the Palestinian people to decide what they want. Do they want a continuous war of terrorism, which eventually is going to bring about the destruction of Palestinian society?" said Ra'anan Gissin, a spokesman for the Israeli government.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat disagreed, saying the Palestinian Authority condemned the blasts and would not accept the blame.

"Whose army and tanks are in the streets of every Palestinian quarter, every Palestinian city, every Palestinian town and village?" Erakat said.

Erakat said 21 Palestinians had been killed in recent weeks. "The only way to break this vicious cycle is resuming a meaningful peace process that would lead to ending the Israeli occupation," he said.

He said the Palestinian Authority and its president, Yasser Arafat, can do everything in their power to stop the suicide bombings, but the effort would only succeed in the "right atmosphere" of negotiations.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb was detonated as the bus drove toward Emanuel, near Nablus, and three gunmen then opened fire and threw grenades as people ran out of the bus.

Powell: 'This is not a way forward'

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters the attack "just reinforces the need for us to get more aggressively involved in security." He said such terrorist attacks only hurt the Palestinian cause, saying, "This is not a way forward."

Powell said he would discuss the region's crisis Thursday during the "Madrid quartet" talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and the Saudi Arabian representative to the United Nations.

The "Madrid quartet" is composed of representatives from the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union. The talks are aimed at fleshing out the specifics of the Middle East vision President Bush laid out last month.

They will discuss the "three tracks" of the diplomatic effort -- security, humanitarian and political -- the most important of which is security.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/07/18/mideast/index.html