By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Israel yesterday arrested a would-be suicide bomber in a town recently handed over to the Palestinian Authority, highlighting the continued violation by Palestinian terror organizations of a cease-fire agreement signed in February, security sources say.
The Israeli Defense Forces arrested Mohammed Ghanem, a 19-year-old Islamic Jihad terrorist reportedly planning several suicide bombings in Israel to take place the next few days with other participants. Ghanem was apprehended in Talkum, a West Bank town released to Palestinian
Israel's Shin Bet security services were interrogating Ghanem last night after he was caught filming himself declaring he was on his way to carry out a suicide attack. Ghenam is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad cell responsible for a March suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv nightclub that killed five. His sister was shot and killed in 2002 after Ghanem dispatched her to stab Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint. The Palestinian governor of Talkum blasted the Israeli operation, saying it breached a handover agreement with the Palestinian Authority. But Israel army radio quoted an Israeli official explaining the agreement contains a clause allowing the IDF to operate in Talkum to stop any imminent terror attacks.
Yesterday's arrest was the latest in a series of Palestinian violations of a cease-fire agreement announced in Egypt February 8 by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
There have since been over 200 rocket and mortar attacks against Jewish communities in Gaza, a suicide bombing and several attempted bombings attacks. Security sources also report Palestinians have been smuggling heavy weaponry from Egypt into Gaza's Rafah region with the assistance of Hamas and Palestinian intelligence. Since the beginning of 2005, there have been approximately 30 incidents of smuggling from Egypt's Sinai region, some to the Gaza Strip and some to the Negev, sources say. In that time, weapons brought into Gaza include approximately 1,000 rifles, dozens of RPG launchers, about 150 handguns, five anti-aircraft shoulder missiles, and tens of thousands of bullets. "The weapons are being smuggled with the help of Hamas and Palestinian forces through tunnels in Rafah. The Palestinian Authority claims to have shut down the tunnels, and they did close some, but others are open, and they are actively helping the smugglers."
Additionally, Hezbollah, at the direction of Syria, maintains a terror apparatus of hundreds of Palestinian militants in the West Bank receiving full-time salaries from the Lebanese group, sources say. They say Palestinian security intercepted a series of communications, including phone calls and e-mails, between Hezbollah and West Bank terrorists indicating Hezbollah had been trying to recruit suicide bombers to carry out attacks that would sabotage the cease-fire agreement.