YASSER ARAFAT'S "MUKATA" COMPOUND IN RAMALLAH: A CENTER FOR CONTROLLING &
SUPPORTING TERRORISM
(Communicated by the IDF Spokesperson)
Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Arafat's compound in Ramallah houses the office of Fuad Shoubaki, the
accounting administration of the Palestinian General Security
Service. Shoubaki is the chief procurement and finance officer of the
Palestinian Authority and was one of the key players involved in
the "Karine A" arms smuggling affair.

Shoubaki's previous office was located 100 meters south of Arafat's
office. Following the "Karine A" affair, Shoubaki was arrested and
interrogated in the office of the Head of the General Intelligence
Service Tiraawi, which is adjacent to Chairman Arafat's office. This
is one of the offices IDF forces entered as a part of the Wall of
Defense operation.

Inside Tiraawi and Shoubaki's office building, IDF forces found a large
amount of weapons, including RPG launchers, which the PA is
forbidden to possess according to its agreements with Israel. IDF forces
also found counterfeit money as well as documents belonging to
Fuad Shoubaki. These prove that Shoubaki continued to operate "business
as usual" in the Moukata compound, even after his involvement
in the "Karine A" affair was discovered.

Shoubaki is close to Chairman Arafat and often accompanies him as a part
of official Palestinian delegations to Arab countries. He also
holds private meetings in countries willing to support the Palestinian
terrorist efforts, such as Iraq, which he visited in November
2001.
Fuad Shoubaki is also in charge of financing the "Fatah" branches, which
carry out terrorist activities under a cover name - "the
Al-Aksa Brigades".
Evidence found by IDF forces in the course of the present operation in
Ramallah established a clear linkage between Shoubaki and the
Al-Aksa Brigades.

Original documents seized by the IDF in the "Moukata" compound reveal
that the Al-Aksa Brigades is an established organization, which
holds official correspondence with Fuad Al-Shoubaki's office in order
for it to finance its planned operations. This money does not go
merely to finance propaganda concerning terrorists involved in attacks,
but also to control the planing of future attacks. One document
captured in Ramallah, for example, is a request from Al-Aksa officials,
dated September 16th, asking Shoubaki for money to prepare
bombs - "the costs of making one explosive charge is at least 700NIS.
Each week, we require 5 to 9 charges for cells operating in the
various regions".

A handwritten document found in the same office, translates this request
to monetary terms using a simple method of calculation: an
average of 7 bombs a week = 5000NIS a week or 20,000NIS per month.

Shoubaki also provided ongoing funding for the activity of the Al-Aksa
Brigades in the Bethlehem region, when he transferred monthly
salaries to the organization's activists in the area. Also, he was
involved in purchasing weapons, which were stolen towards the end of
the year 2000 from an IDF base in the area. These weapons were later
used to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians in the area of
Jerusalem.

Shoubaki was active in other regions as well and had been involved in
smuggling arms from Jordan and Egypt (via underground tunnels).

The Al-Aksa Brigades organization carried out suicide and "Self
Sacrifice" (terrorist shooting) attacks in growing numbers in the last
six months: After carrying out only two attacks towards the end of 2001,
the organization adopted a more aggressive and intensive modus
operandi involving suicide and shooting attacks. Al-Aksa carried out 4
attacks in January 2002 (in Hadera, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv); 6
in Febuary (in Mehola, Army Base "80", Jerusalem, and the Maccabim
checkpoint) and 9 in March (in Netanya, Ashdod, Jerusalem, Tel
Aviv, Kfar Saba and Efrat).