Al Qaeda operating in Gaza, Lebanon, Sharon says
JERUSALEM (AP) — Al Qaeda members have infiltrated the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon and are working to target Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged today amid growing signs that Osama bin Laden's terror network may be getting more directly involved in the Palestinian cause. Israel has sought to link its conflict with the Palestinians to the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, but so far failed to present strong evidence of Al Qaeda operations in Israel, the West Bank or Gaza. For their part, Palestinian leaders have tried to distance themselves from bin Laden, worried that a perceived connection could undermine their cause in the West. Sharon did not give details and security sources on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides said they did not have information showing Al Qaeda had actually established an infrastructure in the Palestinian areas.
The U.S. administration has drawn a distinction between the U.S.-led campaign against Al Qaeda and the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians, fearing that moderate Muslim countries could be discouraged from assisting the United States if Israel gets openly involved. Analysts say that may be exactly what Al Qaeda wants. But a senior Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinian Authority was very wary of any potential Al Qaeda presence that might further weaken its control over the Palestinian areas. He said Palestinians believed Sharon may be preparing a justification for a future invasion of Gaza. Palestinian militant groups condemned the Sept. 11 attacks and insisted again this week that they don't want to export their fight against Israel outside the region.
But there are growing signs that Al Qaeda may be moving in. In what would be their first direct attack on Israelis, a statement posted on an Al Qaeda Web site Monday claimed responsibility for twin attacks Nov. 28 in Kenya, calling it a Ramadan greeting to the Palestinian people. U.S. officials have called the claim of responsibility credible. Another communique posted on the same Web site announced the establishment of a Palestinian branch of Al Qaeda, vowing allegiance to bin Laden. "We declare that the squadrons of our martyrs will strike with all their strength at the Zionist and American arrogance in the region," it read. Israel's army chief, Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon, warned this week that bin Laden is sending instructions to Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv Thursday, Sharon was more direct. He said his government has had information "for some time now" that a "small number" of Al Qaeda people have entered the Gaza Strip, and are in southern Lebanon in "close co-operation" with the Hezbollah guerrilla group. "We know they are in the region," he said, without specifying whether they were Palestinians or foreigners. "There's no doubt that Israel is a target for an attack." However, a senior Israeli security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel has been looking for evidence of Al Qaeda activity locally for months, and so far none has been uncovered. The source said Sharon may have been referring to individual Palestinians who may have returned from studies or training in Afghanistan or Pakistan as Al Qaeda sympathizers and are trying to recruit others. Last February, Israel's then-defence minister, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, said Al Qaeda members fleeing from U.S. troops in Afghanistan were getting into southern Lebanon, but did not mention Gaza. Ben-Eliezer said then they were hooking up with Hezbollah, a claim the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, dismissed as ``ridiculous."
Lebanese president Emile Lahoud denied Sharon's latest charge. ``Al Qaeda has no presence in Lebanon," he said in a statement. ``There is no Qaeda co-ordination or co-operation" with Hezbollah. No comment was immediately available from Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrilla group that was instrumental in forcing Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon after an 18-year occupation in 2000.
On Oct. 10, 2001 — hardly a month after the attacks — a Palestinian with alleged ties to Al Qaeda was arrested by Israeli agents as he was returning from Pakistan and tried to entered the West Bank via Jordan. Israel Radio reported then that the suspect, Alaa Shawaneh, 26, was active in Islamic fundamentalist groups in Pakistan that worked with Al Qaeda and may have been sent by bin Laden. A year earlier, Israel arrested Nabil Oukal, a Palestinian who allegedly told Israeli interrogators that he was recruited by Al Qaeda leaders to form a network in the Palestinian areas. Yossi Melman, an expert on espionage who writes in Israel's Haaretz daily, said Al Qaeda is an amorphous group where affiliation can be loose. "But if the topic is whether militant Muslims who are not Hamas or Islamic Jihad are trying to penetrate the territories, my answer is yes, and it's not new." Just before the Sept. 11 attacks, bin Laden tried to arrange a meeting with Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials in Pakistan, but the meeting was never held because the sides could not agree on an agenda and the Palestinian groups did not want their cause diluted by bin Laden's, said a senior Palestinian official.
After the attacks in New York and Washington, numerous demonstrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza where marchers shouted pro-bin Laden slogans and carried big posters with his picture. The spontaneous demos were an embarrassment to Palestinian authorities, who broke several up or tried to prevent media coverage. Yasser Arafat and his aides made efforts to distance themselves from Al Qaeda. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, said Sharon is "trying to make a point that we are facing certain dangers and the Palestinians are part of a greater terrorist network