Three covert Palestinian networks coordinate attacks in Jerusalem, say security sources
Masses of weapons and explosives are cached in the Palestinian villages and districts of Jerusalem, where three Palestinian terrorist networks are working together to coordinate attacks in the city, according to security-intelligence sources. They decide whether the lone killers use firearms, explosives, knives or mechanical weapons, like the diggers which smashed through Jerusalem’s main streets twice this month. With much of Jerusalem under intense development and Arabs employed at many building sites, police fear a future attack could be carried out by toppling a crane on a densely populated district.
Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin said Wednesday, even before the second bulldozer attack which injured 29 people, that going into Jerusalem’s Shuafat is more dangerous than the Jenin refugee camp. “A security vacuum encircles Jerusalem,” he said, “through which terrorists are free to enter the capital.”
Meir Sheetrit, minister of interior, reported after research that the Palestinian family reunion program approved by Israel had been used to plant scores of active terrorists in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Shin Bet probes in the Arab districts of Jerusalem have turned up close cooperation between Hamas and the fiercely radical Hizb al-Tahir, which is attracting increasing numbers of Palestinian terrorists to its ranks.
Hizb al-Tahrir now controls the mosques on Temple Mount and its environs, having pushed out and replaced the Muslim Waqf sentry posts at the shrine and organized them on the lines of a terrorist militia.
Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah and pro-Jordanian elements, which once ruled Arab sectors of Jerusalem, have lost out to the Islamic fundamentalists.
According to debkafile‘s security sources, the Galilee Liberation Brigades – Imad Mughniyeh fighters, an offshoot of the Lebanese Hizballah among Israeli Arabs, works hand in glove with the Hizb and Hamas.
Counter-terror experts fear that the police, including the Border Guards, which are in charge of security in Jerusalem, are out of touch.
According to one official, their methods of operation were adequate for the traditional law and order tasks of yesterday – but cannot cope with the cycle of terror overtaking Jerusalem in the past year. Jerusalem needs young, vigorous police chiefs with special training in combating terror and organized crime – which often overlap – to replace the old school of police officers who still categorize every attack according to outdated criteria which place terrorism and crime in separate boxes. They then complain they are helpless against the new brand of terrorist, the one-wolf killer.