VARIOUS: PALESTINIANS MAKE ARRESTS AFETER TEL AVIV BOMBING/ ISLAMIC JIHAD CLAIMS RESPONSIBLITY

Record ID: 358699

  • Title: VARIOUS: PALESTINIANS MAKE ARRESTS AFETER TEL AVIV BOMBING/ ISLAMIC JIHAD CLAIMS RESPONSIBLITY
  • Date: 26th February 2005
  • Summary: (W5) TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (FEBRUARY 26, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) NIGHT SHOTS 1. WIDE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES AT SITE OF BOMB ATTACK 0.06 2. SLV EMERGENCY WORKER TALKING TO CASUALITIES 0.07 3. SLV POLICE INSPECTING DAMAGE TO THE NIGHTCLUB 0.13 4. SLV POLICE CORDON AND DAMAGED CARS 0.20 5. SLV EMERGENY WORKERS/ POLICE OUTSIDE N
  • Embargoed: 13th March 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: DEIR AL-GHOSON VILLAGE, NEAR TULKAREM, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK /GAZA/ TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • City:
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVAEDWX5384VLPRNNPGHOCF4KWHZ
  • Story Text: Palestinians make arrests after Tel Aviv bombing:
    Islamic Jihad claims responsibility. .


    ++RESENDING WITH FULL SHOTLIST AND SCRIPT+++


    Scrambling to save a battered truce, Palestinians
    arrested three West Bank suspects after a suicide bombing
    claimed by the Islamic Jihad group on Saturday (February
    26).

    Friday's (February 25) bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub
    killed four Israelis and dealt a heavy blow to peace hopes
    that had brightened since Palestinian President Mahmoud
    Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to a
    ceasefire at a Feb. 8 summit.

    "We confirm that we carried out the operation," an
    official for Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, who declined to be
    named, told Reuters. The group's exiled leadership is
    primarily based in Damascus but also has a representative
    in Beirut.

    Its Gaza-based leadership, who had earlier denied
    knowledge of the bombing and said it remained committed to
    a de facto truce called by Abbas, confirmed the claim.

    Israel and the United States said the bombing, the
    first suicide attack in the Jewish state since November,
    showed Abbas had to act more forcefully to salvage peace
    efforts. But Israeli officials said the Jewish state would
    show restraint for now.

    In some of the strongest Palestinian condemnation of an
    attack during more than four years of bloodshed, Abbas
    called the bombers "terrorists" and blamed outsiders
    opposed to his two-week-old ceasefire with Israel. "We will bring
    t
    hem to justice. We will not allow
    anyone to sabotage the ambitions of our people," Abbas told
    reporters.

    Palestinian officials said three suspected Palestinian
    militants were arrested in the bomber's village, Deir
    al-Ghoson, near Tulkarm. Israeli troops arrested five
    others there, including two brothers of the bomber, during
    a raid.

    Israeli officials said the bombing proved that the
    Palestinian strategy of trying to win over the militants to
    ratify the truce had failed and tougher action was needed.

    "I think the most important thing is that it sends a
    very clear message to Palestinian Authority that while they
    have taken some steps to curb the terrorism they have not
    taken sufficient steps I would say to really dismantle
    terorist organisations, to start the cycle of
    interrogation, arrests so that this kind of phenomena will
    not take place," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's adviser
    Raanan Gissin said.

    Earlier on Saturday, mainstream Palestinian groups
    denied responsibility for the bombing.

    "The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is denying this
    responsibility," said Zakarta Zubeidi, the head of Al Aqsa
    Brigades, a militant Palestinian organisation.

    "We in Hamas we assure you that we are committed to the
    ceasfire that has been endorsed by Hamas and other
    Palestinian factions for the sake of greater interests of
    the Palestinian and our clear reading of the political
    situation and for that we had put forward conditions which
    the majority agrees upon by all the factions and functions
    of our people, " Hamas spokesman Mushir Al-Masri said.

    A senior Palestinian security official said inquiries
    indicated the hand of the Hizbollah guerrilla group.

    But in Beirut, Lebanon, Hizbollah MP Abdallah Kassir
    denied the accusations.

    "Hizbollah has no relation to the latest operation (in
    Tel Aviv) and of course the accusations are fabricated and
    invalid and they (the accusations) come in the context of
    continuous accusations that the Zionists fabricate against
    Hizbullah - to try to throw the responsibility, of the
    operations that the Palestinians are doing as patriotic
    duty against the Zionist occupation on their land - to the
    outside," said Kassir.

    Palestinian militant factions have said they are still
    not satisfied with Israeli gestures meant to build
    confidence -- such as the release of 500 out of 8,000
    prisoners and an end to army raids and assassinations.

    The groups also want a more sweeping Israeli pullback
    from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, which is slated to
    begin on July 20.

    A 25-nation conference in London next week is due to
    look at ways to help Palestinians reform their security
    forces.




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