Gaza Police Foil Plot to Kill Arafat
Palestinian police said Sunday that they had uncovered plots by Islamic militants to assassinate Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and to carry out more suicide bombings in Israel.
The attack on Arafat was to occur during a scheduled visit to a Gaza City cemetery next Sunday, said Col. Tawfiq Jaber, head of Palestinian intelligence in southern Gaza.
“Two explosive parcels and two mines were prepared for assassinating Arafat,” Jaber said at a news conference where he presented six of the seven members of the Islamic militant group Hamas who were arrested in connection with the plot.
Jaber said two of the men have been cooperating with police and have identified 16 underground Hamas cells, leading to an undisclosed number of arrests and the prevention of six planned suicide bombings in Israel. He said the two will be released.
Islamic militants opposed to Arafat’s peacemaking with Israel have claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings that killed 63 people in February and March.
Israel has pressured Arafat to rein in the militants, linking the crackdown’s success to the future of the peace talks and the delayed Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron.
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