Friday, July 19, 2002

Shock at Charges Arabs Were Sold Israeli Munitions
Israelis buried more victims of a Palestinian attack today as the nation grappled with police accusations that Jewish settlers had stolen army ammunition and sold it to Palestinians.

Five settlers, four of whom are soldiers, and a reserve army officer were arrested this week and are suspected of stealing and selling thousands of rounds of ammunition, the police said. The six men have denied that they intended to help Palestinian militants.

The arrests have caused concern in the army over rising weapons theft, and the case has stunned neighbors of some of the suspects in the West Bank settlement of Adora, near Hebron, where four people were killed in an attack by Palestinian gunmen less than three months ago.

As details about the case reverberated today, funerals were held for those killed in the ambush of an Israeli bus on Tuesday in the West Bank and for an officer killed in an ensuing firefight with the attackers. A woman wounded in the ambush died today, bringing the death toll in the attack to nine.

Israeli security officials said today that they thought the bombers had slipped out of the West Bank city of Nablus, which along with six other Palestinian cities has been under curfew imposed by the Israeli Army.

A previously unknown group, Al Nathir, or The Warning, claimed responsibility today for the Tel Aviv bombing, identified the attackers, and said they had come from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus. The group said it was linked to Yasir Arafat's Fatah movement and that it had carried out the bombing "because Israel is still killing Palestinian civilians and occupying all of the West Bank." Islamic Jihad had previously claimed responsibility for the Wednesday bombing.

An Israeli police spokesman said today that the arrests in the ammunition case were made after months of an undercover investigation conducted along with the military police.

The prime suspects are the four soldiers: two pairs of brothers from the settlements of Adora and Telem, east of Hebron. Another resident of Adora has also been arrested, along with a major in the army reserves from the southern coastal city of Ashdod.

A Palestinian from Tarkumiya, near Hebron, was taken into custody on suspicion that he bought the ammunition and served as the conduit for its transfer to Palestinian militants.

According to police accounts, the detained soldiers have admitted to stealing about 60,000 rifle rounds from the army, and they are also suspected of selling thousands of them to Palestinians in the Hebron area.

An army spokesman, confirming the arrests today, said that if the accusations against the soldiers were proven true, the army would view their actions as "very grave."

A police representative called the ammunition sales treason in a court hearing on Wednesday
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/19/international/middleeast/19SETT.html

No comments:

Post a Comment

con·cept