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Newsletter : 2fax0128.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Jan. 28, 2002, Vol. 10, No. 18
Arab Minister Quits Israeli Government
By VOA News
Israel's first ever Arab government minister, Salah Tarif, has resigned amid allegations of taking bribes.
Tarif, a Druze member of the Labor party, has been serving as minister without portfolio in the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
His resignation Sunday came after Israel's public prosecutor decided to launch proceedings against him. He is suspected of taking bribes to enable a Palestinian construction boss to obtain Israeli nationality.
Israeli Dies in Attack by Woman Suicide Bomber
By VOA News
At least one Israeli is dead and 150 more have been wounded in a new suicide bombing in Jerusalem, apparently carried out by a woman.
The explosion took place shortly after mid-day on Jaffa Road, a bustling commercial strip running through the western part of the city that has been the scene of several other terrorist attacks, including one in August that killed 15 people.
Sunday's blast killed one man and a woman, and Israeli news reports say the dead woman was the bomber. At least 150 others were injured in the blast, but most were treated at the scene and released.
The Palestinian Authority quickly condemned the attack and called on President Bush to return mediator Anthony Zinni to the area as quickly as possible. Israeli officials put the blame on Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and the government is expected to retaliate.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian mob stormed a jail in the West Bank town of Jerusalem Sunday and freed at least six Palestinian militants.
News reports quoting Palestinian security sources said the Palestinian police put up resistance but the band of about 70 Palestinians, many of them family members of the militants, took control of the prison and released the inmates.
Reports said the freed militants belonged to an armed group linked to Arafat's Fatah faction. The six men were jailed for alleged terrorist actions some months ago when the Palestinian Authority came under international pressure to crush militants.
IsraelNationalNews reported that at least four of the victims being treated in three hospitals are American citizens from the Long Island area. They were visiting a daughter/sister who is studying in a Jerusalem area yeshiva.
Missile Launchers Moved To Palestinian Cities
By IsraelNationalNews.com
The Palestinian Authority is getting ready to take its war against Israel a step further. Arabs of the autonomous areas have set up rocket launchers in cities adjacent to pre-1967 Israel.
Israel's defense establishment has received information from several sources that Hamas recently transferred a small number of launchers and Kassem-2 shells from Gaza to West Bank cities, and a Hamas official, interviewed Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes, confirmed that his organization posses such missiles.
The Kassem-2 has a range of up to six miles, but is not known for its accuracy. IDF officers told Ha'aretz that the terrorists are expected to start firing the rockets in the near future, and Israel has warned the PA that such actions would be greeted with an Israeli response "of a different magnitude of order entirely." Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that such use of the missiles would be the "crossing of all red lines."
Security Blunder at Ben-Gurion Airport
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Officials are still investigating how a 16-year-old kibbutz volunteer managed to board an El Al flight in Tel Aviv with a military illumination flare in his baggage.
The incident occurred on Friday morning as flight 512 to Johannesburg, a 767 jumbo jet with 194 passengers, was preparing for takeoff. After one of his suitcases was already on board, a short time before takeoff, the innocent passenger notified a member of the crew that he had forgotten that he had an illumination flare in a suitcase that was given to him by a friend on the kibbutz where he was volunteering.
Security officials and police were summoned to the plane, just minutes before takeoff. The suitcase was unloaded and the security officials were shocked to find the 20 inch army illumination flare tucked away in a suitcase. The youth was taken to the airport police station for questioning. The plane took off following a 90-minute delay.
Security officials called the incident a major security blunder, adding the military flare could have easily been set off by being smashed in the suitcase by baggage handlers or other suitcases, adding it would have resulted in a major blaze in the baggage compartment that would likely have spread to the passenger compartment, and possibly bringing down the aircraft.
El Al is in the process of setting up the world's largest baggage inspection system that would analyze the contents of every piece of luggage loaded [or taken] into planes, but the $100 million system will not be ready until 2004. At present, the large uniformed and undercover security force operate with the airport "profile" of persons based on appearance and responses to questions. Then a decision is made to X-ray suitcases and subject a passenger to more scrutinizing security procedures.
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