RAMALLAH, West Bank, 12 August 2007 — Unidentified gunmen tried to assassinate Palestinian police commander Idris Al-Ja’bari in his West Bank home near Hebron, Palestinian security sources said yesterday.
Seventeen shots were fired at Al-Ja’bari, who suffered serious injures and was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment after receiving emergency treatment at the Al-Ahli hospital in Hebron.
Palestinian Authority sources blamed Hamas gunmen for the shooting and said it could be in retaliation for the arrest of their comrades by the Fatah-affiliated security services.
The director of the Hebron governorate police service, Brig. Majid Hawari, said that the Palestinian police had opened investigations into the shooting and that no suspects had been arrested.
Yesterday’s attack has raised fears of another bout of Fatah-Hamas killings. Hamas sources have warned Fatah over the past few days that their patience was wearing thin and that continued action against their men could lead to a harsh reaction.
Meanwhile, Mo’yyad Bani Odeh, who Hamas said was clinically dead in an Israeli hospital after being tortured by PA security services, appeared on the Fatah-aligned Palestine TV yesterday. Bani Odeh confessed that he had been collaborating with Israeli intelligence for the past four years and was assigned to “monitor the Palestinian resistance.”
In a pre-recorded cassette, published by Palestine TV, Bani Odeh appeared healthy, and answered questions by someone off-screen, who was asking him about his collaboration with the Israeli intelligence.
The date that appeared on the cassette was Aug. 10. According to the recorded interview, Bani Odeh joined the Hamas movement in 2001. He was recruited by Israeli intelligence in 2003. He said he was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jericho. He was then tricked into having sex with an Israeli girl and filmed by the Shin Bet Israeli intelligence agency for blackmailing him into collaboration.
Bani Odeh admitted that he joined Israeli troops in a targeted killing on March 13, 2003, in which five activists from Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine were killed.
He said he wore an Israeli military uniform, and accompanied the troops, directing them to the location of the Palestinian gunmen. He added that he shot into the air during the operation and received 2000 Israeli shekel ($ 466) in return for the mission.
Bani Odeh also admitted that Israeli intelligence assigned him to several missions, one of which was to create rift between Hamas and Fatah by shooting at members of both movements, so as to let them exchange accusations.
