U.S. Report: Bin Laden taking aim at Israel

Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden is moving toward a major attack against Israel, U.S. congressional sources said.

A U.S. congressional report said Bin Laden has already deployed agents in two countries that neighbor Israel. The report said the presence of Bin Laden supporters in Jordan and Lebanon indicates plans to attack the Jewish state.

The report was released as Israel announced the arrest of 23 Islamic militants, about half of them linked to Bin Laden's Qaida organization, based in Afghanistan. Israeli military sources said a Bin Laden operative recruited Hamas members for a campaign to fire missiles and detonate bombs in Israel.

The report by the Congressional Research Service, entitled "Terrorism: Near Eastern Groups and State Sponsors, 2000," supports the Israeli assertions. The report, authored by researcher Kenneth Katzman, said some members of Hamas are gravitating toward Bin Laden because of concern that the Islamic leadership is paralyzed.

Bin Laden, based in Afghanistan, appears to have decided to target Israel, the report says. Jordan is prosecuting 28 people linked to a Bin Laden plot to attack U.S. and Israeli citizens during millennium celebrations. In Lebanon, authorities put on trial 29 suspected Bin Laden agents on charges of planning terror attacks.

So far, the report says, Bin Laden's network is comprised of Islamic insurgents ranging from Algeria to Uzbekistan. These include Saudi opposition groups, Egypt's Gamiat Islamiya and Jihad, Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, Pakistan's Harkat ul-Mujahideen, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Israeli officials said they were surprised by the Bin Laden plot. But some counterterrorism experts said they were not.

"The question is not why Bin Laden is targeting Israel, but why hasn't he targeted Israel previously," Israeli counterterrorism expert Yoram Schweitzer said.

Meanwhile in Ramallah, Hamas has again predicted Israel's destruction but the movement's leader denies any role in an alleged terrorist ring linked to Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.

Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin said the Jewish state cannot survive. "The Koran says that very clearly," Yassin said. "I have no doubt that this will happen in a few decades, certainly in this century."

Yassin told the Doha-based A-Jazeera satellite television channel that holy war is the only way to liberate Palestine. Yasin pointed to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 24 in face of Hizbullah attacks.

"There is going to be a larger confrontation and we'd better be prepared for it," he said.

But Yassin denied that Hamas had any links with the Bin Laden movement. "That is not true, and Israel is trying to propagate a lie," Yassin said. "They want the Israeli people to believe that their security forces thwarted a military operation before it took place."

The alleged liasion of Bin Laden in Gaza also denied any link with the Saudi fugitive. Moayan Okal said his detained brother, Nabil, studied in Pakistan but was not involved in politics. Moayan said Nabil was arrested in June by Israeli authorities when he returned from Pakistan to Gaza airport.