TEL AVIV — Hizbullah has ordered the recruitment of teenagers to
serve as suicide bombers in attacks against Israel, according to Israeli security sources.
The sources said Hizbullah has been relaying funds to
recruit Palestinian teenagers in the northern West Bank in an effort to
launch a new wave of attacks against Israel. The sources said Hizbullah has
employed Fatah recruiters to organize suicide bombings in Tel Aviv and other
major Israeli cities.
[On late Wednesday, Hamas fired a Kassam-class short-range missile that
struck an Israeli community in the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. Nobody was injured.]
"Hizbullah has approved the use of teenagers as young 15 to serve as
suicide bombers," a security source said. "They are seen as having a better
chance of moving through Israeli roadblocks."
In May, four would-be teenage suicide attackers — ages 15 and 16 —
were arrested in the West Bank as part of the Hizbullah campaign. The forces
arrested another four operatives -- all of them in the area of Nablus.
The operatives were identified as Fatah members from the Askar and
Balata refugee camps. They were said to have been ordered by Hizbullah to
recruit and train teenagers to become suicide bombers.
The detainees told Israeli interrogators that the suicide bombing
campaign was planned and financed by Hizbullah. One of the teenagers, a
friend of another suicide bomber, volunteered to kill himself in a bombing
of Israeli civilians.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said Hizbullah has filled the vaccum of
power in the West Bank. They said Hizbullah has hired Fatah as well as
Islamic Jihad operatives for attacks against Israel in efforts meant to also
undermine the regime of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
On Wednesday, about 40 Fatah operatives fired in the air for 20 minutes
in
the West Bank city of Jericho and then stormed the summer residence of PA
Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei. Many of the gunmen have been wanted by Israel
and were to have surrendered their weapons to the PA. The gunmen said they
were protesting the PA failure to find them jobs and apartments.
Israeli security forces have launched an offensive against Islamic Jihad
in the northern West Bank. Security sources said an unspecified number of
Jihad operatives have been captured and accused of planning imminent suicide
attacks against Israel.
