The terrorist gang believed responsible for the murders and attempted murders of Arab moderates in the West Bank has been rounded up by Shin Bet, the internal security services. Gen. Amram Mitzna, commander of the central sector who announced the capture at a press conference Friday, described the gang as “one of the most dangerous to have operated on the West Bank in recent years” and had high praise for the work of Shin Bet.
The gang is believed to be affiliated with George Habash’s Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) which recently re-joined Yasir Arafat’s mainstream Palestine Liberation Organization from which Habash had split many years ago.
The number of terrorists arrested was not disclosed by Mitzna. All are residents of the Samaria region of the West Bank and operated in Jenin and Nablus.
They are suspected of the assassination of Zafr Al-Masri, the Israel-appointed Mayor of Nablus in March 1986, the attempted murder of Jenin Mayor Abdallah Lahluh last month, during which his driver was wounded, and the murder of Afula resident Albert Bukhris, in 1985.
Their other victims include border policeman Jamil Faris who was killed and another border policeman wounded in Nablus in January 1986; Uri Ovid, an Israeli from Tiberias who was wounded in the Jenin marketplace in August 1985; and Haim Tanami, an Israeli from Massur, wounded in Nablus in June 1986.
REVENGE FEARED
The linkage of Al-Masri’s murder to the PFLP gang raised tensions in the West Bank where some members of the slain mayor’s family have sworn revenge. But his brother, Hikmat Al-Masri, a former Speaker of the Jordanian parliament, was quoted as saying the family is grateful to the Israeli authorities for solving the murder. He rejected the idea of revenge, saying “vengeance will come from Allah.”
Nevertheless, observers here believe resentment is likely to mount against the PLO and Arafat who received the PFLP back into the fold. It was noted that Al-Masri’s murder immediately followed the break-off of talks between Arafat and King Hussein of Jordan on Palestinian participation in the peace process. It was apparently a warning to other public figures not to cooperate with Jordan or Israel.
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