TEL AVIV — Israel has uncovered a Hamas network that for the first
time test-fired a Kassam-class, short-range missile in the West Bank.
Israeli security sources said the network operated in the northern West
Bank and assembled three Kassam missiles. The sources said the network was
financed by Hamas in Syria and ordered to prepare for missile attacks on
Israeli communities in the West Bank and in Israel.
"All those arrested have been identified as key terrorist figures
suspected of Hamas related terrorist activity, including the building and
maintaining of a weapons laboratory also designed to manufacture Kassam
rockets," an Israeli military statement said.
Israel has foiled other attempts to produce the Kassam missile in the
West Bank. But officials said this was the first time Hamas succeeded in
assembling and test-firing a Kassam, believed to have a range of about 10
kilometers. Hamas has fired more than 500 Kassam missiles from the Gaza
Strip toward Israeli targets.
[On Wednesday, Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Nasser Yusef
dismissed senior commanders in the Jenin area. The decision came one day
after Yusef's convoy in Jenin came under gunfire from insurgents from the
ruling Fatah movement.]
So far, 13 suspected members of the Hamas network were arrested in
January and February 2005 in the northern West Bank. The sources said the
Kassam components and other weapons were discovered in a tunnel in Yamoun,
located near Jenin.
The sources said Hamas tested a Kassam missile outside the home of the
head of the network, identified as Yiha Sayid Mussa Zivad. Zivad lives in
Silat Al Hartia, north of Jenin, and was said to have also been ordered to
manufacture mortars.
In late 2004, the Hamas network accumulated materials for the
manufacturing of the Kassam. The sources said the materials included
mercury, glycerin, nitrate, acids and tools required for explosives
production.
The sources identified the weapons expert of the cell as Atzam Shafik Al
Qader Samar, a welder from Yamoun. Samar was said to have manufactured at
least three Kassam missiles, two of which were used in trial launches.
"The investigation of the terrorist network reveals that this was an
operation carried out with an unusually high level of secrecy, in that it
involved only a selective number of terrorists from the network, with
centralized management by Yehya Zayud," the sources said, without
elaborating.
The capture of the Hamas network came amid a spike in insurgency attacks
against Israeli targets in the northern West Bank. Overnight Thursday, a car
bomb was detonated by Palestinian insurgents near an Israeli military patrol
in Nablus. Nobody was injured when the bomb exploded outside Joseph's Tomb,
a Jewish pilgrimage site.
Earlier, a Fatah insurgent was captured in the northern West Bank as he
was preparing a suicide bombing attack against
Israel. Israeli authorities also reported the foiling of a suicide bombing
in Jerusalem, but would not release details.
"The security forces prevented a huge disaster in Jerusalem," Deputy
Internal Security Minister Yaakov Edri said. "The Palestinian Authority is
not doing enough."
