Arafat's forces take credit for murdering 5 - but not suicide attack so
doesn't violate promises?

11 November 2002

Israel Radio Arab Affairs Correspondent Avi Yissakharov reported this
morning that Yasser Arafat's Tanzim Al Aqsa Brigade (the article by
Ha'aretz below opts to use the curious term "linked" while the Palestinians
themselves make no bones that they are members of Yasser Ararat's Fatah)
slaughter of 5 last night at a kibbutz within the Green Line technically did
not violate the deal being brokered by the European Union that there be no
suicide attacks within the Green Line since this was not a suicide attack.

Kibbutz Metzer is know for its excellent relations with its Arab neighbors.]

Police: 5 killed as terrorists open fire in Kibbutz Metzer

By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and Agencies

Five people were killed and three injured when terrorists infiltrated
Kibbutz Metzer, near the Green Line, close to midnight Sunday and opened
fire. Police sources said that the bodies of three adults and two children
had been found.

According to initial reports, it appeared that the terrorists entered a home
and opened fire, after first firing on kibbutz members walking from the
dining room to their homes. Israel Radio later reported that three people
were killed in a home and two near the dining room.

The security coordinator at the kibbutz spotted at least one of the
terrorists and opened fire, but failed to hit him.

Large numbers of police and Border Police, who used flares to light up the
area, searched the kibbutz after midnight, with the help of a helicopter,
but it appeared that the terrorists had succeeded in fleeing the kibbutz.

Residents were confined to their homes and security forces imposed a
blackout on the kibbutz, which is located on the Israeli side of the Green
Line, north of Tul Karm.

"We are all closed up in our houses. We heard the shots and turned off the
lights and shut the doors," kibbutz resident Oded Shahar told Channel Two
television.

First-aid teams who rushed to the scene of the attack were barred from
entering Metzer for more than an hour by security forces who feared that the
terrorists might still be inside the kibbutz.

Initial reports had first spoken of one terrorist having infiltrated the
kibbutz, but northern police chief Ya'akov Borovsky later told Israel Radio
that based on the number of shots fired and the ballistics of the bullets,
it was likely the attack had been carried out by more than one gunman.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Yasser Arafat's Fatah party,
claimed responsibility for the attack in phone calls to news agencies.

There have been a number of warnings recently of plans to carry out an
attack at Metzer and security forces recently held a drill with residents
there.

Officials in the defense establishment suspect that the shooting may have
been carried out by members of the same cell which tried to penetrate Israel
earlier in the day, near Kibbutz Metzer, in order to carry out a suicide
attack.

In that incident, two Palestinians were killed when their car exploded after
they were stopped by a Border Police patrol.

"The Palestinian terror machine doesn't miss a beat," said David Baker, an
official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, after troops had foiled
the attack.

Also Sunday, the army said it arrested a 15-year-old youth from the West
Bank city of Nablus on his way to carry out a suicide attack and a senior
Hamas member from the West Bank town of Hebron.

Border Police sappers on Sunday defused two explosive devices, weighing 160
kilograms found in hothouses in the Gaza Strip settlement of Morag.