Israel Points To Hamas Funding
JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has determined that major Palestinian attacks
against Israel were funded by the Hamas network.
Security sources said several major attacks by Palestinians stemmed from
payment of thousands of dollars for operatives and weapons. They said
some of the funds were traced to the Hamas network, which included planners
in such countries as Iran, Qatar and Turkey.
"There are elements who are working to sustain the terrorism, and they
are pouring money into the territories," a source said.
The determination contrasted with the arrest of insurgency suspects said
to be unaffiliated with any Palestinian insurgency network. They included
teenagers armed with knives who stabbed Jews in the streets of Jerusalem
over the last two months.
On Nov. 24, the Israel Security Agency released excerpts of an
interrogation of a suspect in the shooting and stabbing attack on an Israeli
bus in Jerusalem on Oct. 13. The suspect, Bilal Abu Ghanem, accused of
killing two of the passengers, said he was recruited by a Palestinian who
claimed he acquired tens of thousands of Israeli shekels for an attack. The
recruiter, identified as Baha Eilan, was killed in the attack.
"Baha came over to the cocktail bar where I was working the night before
the attack," the excerpt quoted Abu Ghanem as saying. "He told me that he
had 20,000 shekel and wanted to buy a gun."
"I asked him, 'Why a gun?'" Abu Ghanem was quoted as recalling. "And he
answered that he wanted to launch an attack against Jews. I told him that if
he managed to
get a gun, I'd carry out the attack with him."
The excerpts, published by Israel's Walla news agency, did not describe
the source of the money allocated for the attack. A handgun could be
obtained around Jerusalem for less than 1,000 shekel, or $270.
Both Eilan and Abu Ghanem was identified as supporters of Hamas. Hamas,
which has encouraged the campaign,
did not claim responsibility for the passenger bus attack.
ISA's assessment that funding played a role in the current Palestinian
campaign differed with that of the military. Military Intelligence has
assessed that 95 percent of the attacks were conducted by individuals not
affiliated with such groups as Fatah and Hamas.
"These terrorists are desperate and frustrated young people, some of
them unemployed," a senior military source said.
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