Ben-Eliezer: Killed Hamas Leader was Preparing 'Mega Attack'

July 25, 2002

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Thursday that Hamas military commander Salah Shehada, killed in the IAF's Gaza strike on Monday, was in the midst of preparing "a mega terror attack."

Speaking at a meeting at the Labor Party's central headquarters in Beit Berl, Ben-Eliezer said that Shehada planned to infiltrate one ton of explosives into Israel "which could shock the whole nation or kill hundreds."

Ben-Eliezer said that he postponed the assassination operation eight times during the past two months, including last Friday. "The plane was already in the air but we got word that his daughter was with him and the operation was once again postponed. We received information two days ago that he was alone with two other murderers," Ben-Eliezer said.

The defense minister said "I do not take the deaths of children lightly. We are a people who do all they can to try to prevent the deaths of children and women, but when you are in the midst of a complicated war, there can be mistakes, which we will learn from."

Mubarak: IAF Gaza strike was bid to wreck peace initiatives
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Thursday the IAF strike that killed Hamas military wing leader Salah Shehada and 14 others in a residential area in Gaza City was a deliberate attempt to sabotage recent efforts to ease Middle East violence.

Speaking after talks in Paris with French President Jacques Chirac, Mubarak said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had sought deliberately to wreck efforts on the Palestinian side to halt the chain of violence. Before Tuesday's strike, there were peace initiatives aimed at getting the militant Palestinian group Hamas to stop carrying out attacks against Israel, Mubarak said. He added that Palestinian initiatives were also underway and that he himself had hosted the Israeli defense minister.

Then "there was this abominable strike at Gaza," he said. "This shows that the Israeli prime minister was doubtless not happy with these initiatives and efforts, and said to himself, 'I'll carry out this attack at Gaza to sabotage all these efforts'," Mubarak said.

Sharon "must understand that if there is no peace, that it's guaranteed ruin for everyone, not just for the Palestinians, but for the Israeli people themselves, because they will not be able to live normally," Mubarak said.

Chirac said that French and Egyptian positions were in complete agreement on issues including the Middle East and said he backed the Egyptian view that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was the only viable negotiator for the Palestinian side.

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