JERUSALEM — Israeli and Palestinian security forces say they have uncovered a terrorist group linked to millionaire terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Israel has arrested some 23 individuals over the last few months who allegedly planned a range of attacks in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. An official at the Prime Minister’s Office office confirmed the arrests and said Ehud Barak sees them as a “very important step” in combatting terrorism.
According to security sources, the group planned a variety of attacks using missiles, remote controlled bombs and suicide bombers — all designed to inflict massive casualties similar to the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which have been blamed on bin Laden. The Saudi militant is on the U.S. wanted list as the primary suspect in masterminding this crime.
The arrests prevented plans to detonate a roadside bomb on an Israeli army patrol near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip, the firing of a missile at a settlement and the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, authorities said.
The uncovering of the cell came on the heels of a warning from the U.S. State Department to Americans living and traveling in Israel; however, U.S. Embassy spokesman Larry Schwartz said he knew nothing of the arrests or whether they were linked to the travel advisory.
Danny Yatom, the prime minister’s security adviser, subsequently dismissed the U.S. warning to Americans not to travel in the region.
Additionally, a U.S. congressional report released Monday said bin Laden supporters may be planning attacks in Israel to try to thwart the Middle East peace process.
The man in charge of the ring is said to be Nabil Okal, 27, from the Jebaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Okal was arrested in June.
According to security sources, Okal received help from Hamas leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin. It is not clear whether Yassin knew of Okal’s links to bin Laden, but the militant group had already gathered intelligence on potential targets and practiced detonations with a mobile phone. A security source said they had also developed an anesthetic to put a soldier to sleep.
Okal reportedly recruited the terrorists, among them a number of Israeli Arabs. Security services arrested at least three of them while they were trying to move weapons from a hiding place near the Egyptian border in the Negev Desert to the West Bank, and Palestinian security services arrested 12 Palestinian suspects.
Okal is said to have spent time in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He reportedly received extensive training in the manufacturing of bombs and the use of remote controlled devices from bin Ladin’s organization.
Senior Israeli security sources said the terror ring reveals a dangerous network of a new nature, which involves different groupings and cuts across borders. The network included links with terrorist headquarters in Damascus, as well as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, which so far was unable to act inside Israel proper.