Weapons Olmert Sold to Abbas ‘Will Be Used on Jews’

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The New York Sun

JERUSALEM – Weapons transferred in recent days by Israel to Force 17, the presidential guard units of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, will be used against Jews, a senior member of Force 17 told The New York Sun in an exclusive interview yesterday.

The terrorist, Abu Yousuf, indicated that the weapons were already used in two shooting attacks the past few days that killed one Israeli civilian and wounded another.

Prime Minister Olmert announced earlier this week that he had approved a shipment of weapons and ammunition that reportedly included more than 370 assault rifles and was destined for Force 17. The shipment allegedly originated in Jordan and required Israel’s approval for transport.

Mr. Olmert said the shipment was meant to bolster security forces loyal to Mr. Abbas amid an increasingly violent power struggle between the Palestinian Authority chairman’s Fatah Party and Hamas, which won the recent Palestinian Arab parliamentary elections.

“I did this because we are running out of time and we need to help Abu Mazen,” Mr. Olmert told reporters Tuesday, referring to Mr. Abbas.

The weapons reportedly were escorted by Israel to Ramallah and the Gaza border, where Force 17 members received them.

Mr. Yousuf said the weapons will be fired at Israelis.

“These weapons will not be used in an internal war but against Israelis. Force 17 is proud that we were the first to lead the Palestinian people during tough times such as resistance operations” against the Israeli army during large-scale operations in the northern Samaria region in 2002, he said. “We will also be the first to lead the Palestinians in the current struggle against Israeli occupation.”

Several Force 17 members, including Mr. Yousuf, also are members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terror group linked to Fatah that is responsible for scores of suicide bombings and shooting attacks.

Mr. Yousuf himself has participated in anti-Israel terrorism, including recent shootings, attacks last month against Israeli forces operating in Ramallah, and an attack in the northern Samaria region in December 2000 that killed an ultranationalist activist, Benyamin Kahane.

After Kahane’s murder, Mr. Yousuf was extended refuge by Yasser Arafat to live in the late Palestine Liberation Organization leader’s Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata. Mr. Yousuf still lives in the compound.

Mr. Abbas appointed Mahmoud Damra to head Force 17 earlier this week. Mr. Damra, who is on Israel’s most wanted list of terrorists, was offered shelter in Arafat’s compound in Ramallah in 2002 after Israel accused him of masterminding a string of terrorist attacks.

Israeli security officials say that since September 2000, Mr. Damra has led a terror cell based in Ramallah that has carried out deadly attacks, including shootings at Israeli vehicles, attacks against Jewish communities in the Judea and Samaria regions, and the planting of roadside bombs.

Mr. Yousuf told the Sun that Israel transferred the weapons to his Force 17 unit “for its own political purposes. We are not concerned with the reasons. The weapons will not be used against our brothers, only [against] Israelis.”

Sources close to the Al Aqsa Brigades told the Sun that assault rifles transferred by Israel to Force 17 had already been used in two anti-Israel shooting attacks in recent days. One attack killed a 35-year-old Israeli Arab on a West Bank highway outside Jerusalem this past Sunday. Israeli security officials say the shooters likely mistook the victim for a Jew. The second attack, which occurred Tuesday on the same highway, lightly wounded an Israeli.

Mr. Yousuf refused to say whether Israeli weapons were used in the recent spate of highway shootings, but he hinted the information was accurate. He told the Sun that the shooters he said were responsible for the two attacks live with him in the Muqata.

“They live in the Muqata in the same place as me. We share weapons for the resistance,” he said.

The writer is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com.


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