TEL AVIV — Islamic Jihad claimed credit for the recent attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub and is planning new mass-casualty attacks
against Israel, according to Israeli security officials.
The sources said Jihad planned to send a car laden with explosives for
detonation against an Israeli civilian or military target.
The planners are part of the Jihad network in the northern West
Bank town of Tulkarm, the sources said. They said the network prepared a car
bomb that weighed 500 kilograms on orders from Jihad headquarters in Syria.
"The idea was to explode the car near a bus that contained either
settlers or soldiers in the Jenin area," a source said.
On Feb. 25, Jihad claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a
nightclub in Tel Aviv. Five people died in the attack.
Israeli troops found the commercial vehicle filled with explosives in
Arabe near the West Bank city of Jenin. Israeli sources said the vehicle had
undergone the final stages of preparation for an attack against Israel.
"The vehicle, which was in the final stages of preparation for the
attack, was discovered with a long cable protruding from it," the source
said. "The cable was attached to a battery and a video camera, intended for
the documentation of the terrorist attack."
The sources said the explosives-laden vehicle was detonated by Israeli
sappers. They said the military and Israel Security Agency were alerted to
the Jihad plans for a car bombing in Israel and had been searching for the
vehicle.
Jihad was also said to have been involved in other insurgency attacks in
the northern West Bank and Israel. Two Israeli security guards were shot and
injured in a Palestinian ambush on late Monday in what security sources said
was an attempt to infiltrate an Israeli community.
On Tuesday, security officials announced the arrest of the Jihad leader
Jibril Zubeidi. Zubeidi was arrested on December 30 in Jenin. Security
officials
said that Zubeidi had planned to launch rockets into the town of Afula in
northern Israel.
