The police and General Security Service arrested the six members of a major Hamas terrorist cell over the past few days. The terrorists, mostly Israeli-Arab residents of the Jerusalem area controlled by leaders in Ramallah, are responsible for the murders of 35 people in eight different attacks. The gang leader is Wallid Kassam, 31, of Ras el-Amoud, adjacent to the new Ma'aleh HaZeitim neighborhood east of the Old City. Ten other Arabs were taken in for questioning. The attacks include the following:
* Sheffield Pool Hall in Rishon LeTzion, May 7, 2002: A suicide bomber murdered 15 people and wounded over 50.
* Moment Cafe in Jerusalem, March 9, 2002: A suicide bomber murdered 11 and wounded over 50.
* Hebrew University, Jerusalem, July 31, 2002: A bomb exploded in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria, killing nine Jews.
* The two bombs attached to Pi Gelilot fuel tankers. One person was lightly injured.
The Prime Minister’s Media Advisor released a statement afterwards warning of the "nihilistic" and "unrestrained" manner in which the terrorists perpetrate their crimes against Israeli and international targets, and the dire consequences which could follow for the entire Israeli-Arab population. Excerpts: "Residents of eastern Jerusalem [liberated by Israel in June 1967] enjoy all the rights of Israeli citizenship, except the right to vote in national elections. The above individuals have exploited this fact in order to initiate, direct and perpetrate deadly terrorist acts in Israel. Furthermore, they have exploited their freedom of travel within Israel in various ways - collecting intelligence information regarding terrorist targets, driving in vehicles with yellow Israeli license plates, delivering explosive charges to sites near the planned attack sites, and perpetrating attacks. In addition, they have smuggled terrorists over the Green Line...
"The implications of the foregoing directly damages the trust given to residents of eastern Jerusalem, who could pay a dear social and economic price as a result of being alienated from the Jewish population and of being considered as suspicious in all areas...
"Muhammad Ouda, who placed the explosive charge in the Hebrew University cafeteria, worked there as a handyman. He was thus able to use his knowledge of the scene in order to hide the explosive charge the day before the attack and to later place it in the cafeteria without arousing suspicion. This did not prevent him from coming to work as usual a day later [to help rebuild the damaged building - ed. note]. Wassam Abasi worked in the Holon area; while driving through Rishon LeTzion, he noticed a billiards club and mentioned it as a possible site for an attack. He also investigated the club’s accessibility [and] also gathered information regarding the gas tanker that was parked in Holon...
"The future implication is that more and more Israeli employers may refrain from hiring residents of eastern Jerusalem with Israeli ID cards (a trend which is growing daily)... The price that residents of eastern Jerusalem will have to pay as due to the actions of Hamas terrorists, whose agenda was determined somewhere in Syria and/or Iran, is obvious.
"Mega-terror: [Hamas'] emphasis was... to perpetrate unprecedented damage - from which there is no return - against Israeli infrastructures (trains, gas tankers, etc.) and inflict considerable casualties. The objective was to injure and kill as many people as possible, to harm the country’s way of life and to disrupt day-to-day life, while ignoring the results and implications of their actions vis-a-vis the reactions of both Israel and the rest of the free world.
Harming foreign nationals: ... The target of the [Hebrew University] attack confirms the use of unrestrained terror that does not differentiate among victims; French and American citizens, as well as Israelis, were killed in this terrorist bombing. Such an attack... only emphasizes the nihilistic, unrestrained nature of the terror. Targeting the Hebrew University campus, which is perceived by the world as being extra-territorial and serves as a universal cultural site based on reconciliation and intellectual values, affirms the contempt that the terrorist organizations - with emphasis on the Islamic terrorist groups among them - have for these values. It also represents the cultural war being waged against these values, which radical fundamentalists perceive as threat to Islam and its future - a perception that was exposed subsequent to the September 11 attacks perpetrated by Osama Bin-Laden.
"The aforementioned is prominent at Palestinian [Authority] university campuses throughout ... Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which focus on spreading incitement and hate regarding all that the free world holds dear; this was exposed in the documents confiscated by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield. These documents exposed the universities’ involvement in producing terror and the cynical use of research laboratories in order to manufacture explosive charges and materials."
* Sheffield Pool Hall in Rishon LeTzion, May 7, 2002: A suicide bomber murdered 15 people and wounded over 50.
* Moment Cafe in Jerusalem, March 9, 2002: A suicide bomber murdered 11 and wounded over 50.
* Hebrew University, Jerusalem, July 31, 2002: A bomb exploded in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria, killing nine Jews.
* The two bombs attached to Pi Gelilot fuel tankers. One person was lightly injured.
The Prime Minister’s Media Advisor released a statement afterwards warning of the "nihilistic" and "unrestrained" manner in which the terrorists perpetrate their crimes against Israeli and international targets, and the dire consequences which could follow for the entire Israeli-Arab population. Excerpts: "Residents of eastern Jerusalem [liberated by Israel in June 1967] enjoy all the rights of Israeli citizenship, except the right to vote in national elections. The above individuals have exploited this fact in order to initiate, direct and perpetrate deadly terrorist acts in Israel. Furthermore, they have exploited their freedom of travel within Israel in various ways - collecting intelligence information regarding terrorist targets, driving in vehicles with yellow Israeli license plates, delivering explosive charges to sites near the planned attack sites, and perpetrating attacks. In addition, they have smuggled terrorists over the Green Line...
"The implications of the foregoing directly damages the trust given to residents of eastern Jerusalem, who could pay a dear social and economic price as a result of being alienated from the Jewish population and of being considered as suspicious in all areas...
"Muhammad Ouda, who placed the explosive charge in the Hebrew University cafeteria, worked there as a handyman. He was thus able to use his knowledge of the scene in order to hide the explosive charge the day before the attack and to later place it in the cafeteria without arousing suspicion. This did not prevent him from coming to work as usual a day later [to help rebuild the damaged building - ed. note]. Wassam Abasi worked in the Holon area; while driving through Rishon LeTzion, he noticed a billiards club and mentioned it as a possible site for an attack. He also investigated the club’s accessibility [and] also gathered information regarding the gas tanker that was parked in Holon...
"The future implication is that more and more Israeli employers may refrain from hiring residents of eastern Jerusalem with Israeli ID cards (a trend which is growing daily)... The price that residents of eastern Jerusalem will have to pay as due to the actions of Hamas terrorists, whose agenda was determined somewhere in Syria and/or Iran, is obvious.
"Mega-terror: [Hamas'] emphasis was... to perpetrate unprecedented damage - from which there is no return - against Israeli infrastructures (trains, gas tankers, etc.) and inflict considerable casualties. The objective was to injure and kill as many people as possible, to harm the country’s way of life and to disrupt day-to-day life, while ignoring the results and implications of their actions vis-a-vis the reactions of both Israel and the rest of the free world.
Harming foreign nationals: ... The target of the [Hebrew University] attack confirms the use of unrestrained terror that does not differentiate among victims; French and American citizens, as well as Israelis, were killed in this terrorist bombing. Such an attack... only emphasizes the nihilistic, unrestrained nature of the terror. Targeting the Hebrew University campus, which is perceived by the world as being extra-territorial and serves as a universal cultural site based on reconciliation and intellectual values, affirms the contempt that the terrorist organizations - with emphasis on the Islamic terrorist groups among them - have for these values. It also represents the cultural war being waged against these values, which radical fundamentalists perceive as threat to Islam and its future - a perception that was exposed subsequent to the September 11 attacks perpetrated by Osama Bin-Laden.
"The aforementioned is prominent at Palestinian [Authority] university campuses throughout ... Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which focus on spreading incitement and hate regarding all that the free world holds dear; this was exposed in the documents confiscated by the IDF during Operation Defensive Shield. These documents exposed the universities’ involvement in producing terror and the cynical use of research laboratories in order to manufacture explosive charges and materials."