Shorts: Mideast

Hamas boosts bombs with chemical warfare

jerusalem (jta) | Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank have reportedly been experimenting with adding chemical toxins to their bombs.

Security sources have reported that Hamas cells have been stockpiling explosives in anticipation of a new round of conflict with Israel after it carries out its planned selective withdrawals in the West Bank.

Intent on escalating their attacks to so-called "mega-terrorism," Hamas has experimented with adding chemicals to bombs.

The new intelligence appeared to be connected to the interrogation of Hamas' military commander in the West Bank, who was captured by Israel last month after an eight-year manhunt.




Bibi: Olmert's plan will harm Israel

jerusalem (jps) | Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday June 5, that Hamas will be the only party satisfied by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's "convergence" plan. He said there was no sense to the plan, which consisted of giving up all of Israel's bargaining chips.

He added that he supported a plan of withholding resources from the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, in order to engineer its collapse.

In an interview with Israel Radio, he continued to blast the Gaza disengagement plan, saying that the plan was extremely costly, strengthened Hamas, endangered Jordan and didn't leave Israel with anything with which to conduct negotiations.