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.