- (AFP) -- Palestinian security forces have arrested a
group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives
of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said
yesterday.
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- The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon.
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- "The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators
who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as al-Qaeda operatives
in the Palestinian territories," said the official, on condition of
anonymity.
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- He said the alleged collaborators sought to "discredit
the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide reasons
to carry out a new (military) aggression in the Gaza Strip."
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- The official did not say how many suspects had been arrested,
nor where or when they were nabbed.
-
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- Earlier, international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath
announced he would hold a press conference here on the alleged presence
of al-Qaeda operatives in the Gaza Strip.
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- Sharon's announcement marked the first time Israel officially
claimed that al-Qaeda, held responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks
in the United States, was operating in the Palestinian territories.
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- It was considered a surprise because the Gaza Strip is
virtually sealed off by Israeli troops.
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- The hardline Israeli leader also charged other members
of the terror group were cooperating with Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hizbollah.
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- The Palestinians slammed the allegation as "totally
absurd" and accused Sharon of trying to piggyback on the US-led "war
against terrorism" to strengthen his military operations against militants
in the territories.
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- Both the Lebanese government and Hizbollah made similar
statements.
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- A US citizen of Syrian descent was arrested last month
at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on suspicion of transferring funds to
terrorist organisations in general, and those connected to al-Qaeda in
particular.
-
- Three Israelis and 10 Kenyans were killed in a suicide
attack on a hotel near the Kenyan port of Mombasa last Thursday, shortly
after missiles narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight taking off from
there with 261 passengers.
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- The attacks were purportedly claimed by al-Qaeda on an
Islamic website.
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- Meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter
gunships swept into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip yesterday,
sparking a gun battle and killing 10 people, Palestinian witnesses and
medics said.
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- Army officials said the troops had met fierce resistance
in the three-hour pre-dawn incursion, which it said was intended to root
out militants responsible for attacks on troops in Gaza in a more than
two-year Palestinian uprising for independence.
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