Israel's Shin Bet security services and members of the Border Police thwarted a bombing attack Tuesday morning in Jerusalem, after a booby-trapped car in which two Palestinians were driving blew up near the village of Walajeh south of Jerusalem, close to Bethlehem.
According to Israeli press reports, the car was headed either for the Malha Shopping Mall in Jerusalem or for the nearby Biblical Zoo. The car exploded after police ordered it to stop near a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Acting on intelligence reports warning of an attack, dozens of Israeli police had surrounded Jerusalem's Malha Mall in recent days.
"The car with explosives was headed from the outskirts of the West Bank town of Bethlehem toward southern Jerusalem when police spotted it," police spokesman Kobi Zariyahu said. Police ordered the car to stop. "The car exploded, killing two passengers."
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for this attack in Jerusalem.
In a telephone call to AFP, a man claiming to represent the group identified the two activists as Khaled Moussa, 19, and Shadi Hamamneh, 22, from villages close to Bethlehem.
Israel's Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Tuesday there has been a discernible drop in violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the last few days, but that Arafat had not handed down any clear orders to his security forces to impose a cease-fire. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
