Militant leader claims Israeli residents recruited to carry out bombings
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization, has formed a terrorist cell living in the vicinity of Jerusalem consisting of Israeli residents ready to carry out attacks within the Jewish state, according to a top Brigades leader speaking to WND.
"We have Israeli Arab brothers who are members of the Brigades who live in Israel and will make in the coming days and weeks shootings and suicide bombings," said the Brigades leader, who spoke on the condition his name be withheld.
"Even in the case that there will be a cease-fire in Gaza, will keep attacking Israel. They will see the importance of our cells in Jerusalem with more attacks in the near future," the Brigades leader said.
The claim follows a shooting attack this weekend in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood targeting Israeli policemen and carried out by two Arab men who were permanent Israeli residents living in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood on Jerusalem's periphery. On Saturday, the two opened fire at close range on an Israeli border policeman and a security guard. The policeman was hit in the chest and seriously wounded; the guard was moderately wounded. The Arab perpetrators were shot and killed by Israeli forces.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group claimed responsibility for the shooting.
Most terror attacks inside Israel are carried out by Palestinians who infiltrate Jewish cities from West Bank or Gaza Palestinian areas, although there have been some attacks perpetrated by Israeli Arabs.
Dozens of Israeli Arabs have been accused of aiding the infiltration of Palestinian suicide bombers the past few years; over 18 Israeli Arabs have been convicted in Israeli courts the past 10 years for aiding the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.
Israeli Knesset Member Azmi Bishara was recently accused by Israeli security officials of aiding Hezbollah.
The Brigades leader told WND the purported cells of Israeli Arabs living within the Jewish state are "full members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. They are ready to attack at any time."
Israeli security officials couldn't immediately confirm the Brigades claim of a cell within Jerusalem.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby told WND that police were investigating the Brigades claim.
Yuval Diskin, director of Israel's General Security Services, recently warned of Israeli Arab involvement in terror. Diskin told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in March that Israeli Arabs constituted a "strategic threat" to Israel, according to Israel's Maariv newspaper.
The GSS released a statement in response to Diskin's quotes warning of "subversive activity by elements seeking to harm the character of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state even when this activity is conducted with the tools that democracy provides."
Arabs make up about twenty percent of Israel's population.
A recent poll by the University of Haifa showed half of Israeli Arabs believe Hezbollah's kidnapping last July of two Israeli troops was justified. The same poll showed more than a quarter of Israel's Arab citizens believe the Holocaust never happened and 89 percent said they viewed Israel's bombing of Lebanon last summer as a war crime while only 44 percent said they saw Hezbollah's rocket attacks against Israeli cities as a crime.
Multiple reports in the Israeli media last summer found Hezbollah flags flying from some Israeli Arab villages in the north of the country, even when the areas were smashed by Hezbollah rockets.
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