The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

West Bank gang killer still at large

By John Batchelor on 3.1.06 @ 2:15PM

Jerusalem source confirms that Abu Nasser, deputy commander of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade on the West Bank, directed two shooting attacks against Israelis in the last news cycle: one fatality at point blank range in a service station near Jenin, a second WIA near Qalqiliya.

Abu Nasser spoke by mobile phone to my Jerusalem source and my audience (and this writer) forty hours agao from his hideout in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus on the West Bank. Abu Nasser has been in hiding for more than ten days from an IDF special operations team in place around the camp. The roads are sealed, the camp is under scrutiny, the IDF team is patient, well-fixed, keen.

A week ago, the capture of Abu Nasser and Nablus Al Aqsa commander Ala Senakreh was imminent; however they escaped the moment but not the net.

In our conversation on Abu Nasser's moble phone (Israeli cellphone), after 1 am West Bank time, Abu Nasser whispered often, sounded anxious and winded, as if he was moving around as he spoke. The conversation lasted approximately nineteen minutes. I am confident it was monitored by the IDF special operations team. That Abu Nasser remains at large underlines how most difficult capturing a terrorist/killer can be, as the IDF is the best on the planet in hot pursuit into an enemy camp.

Abu Nasser is directing a sharp increase in attacks with firebombs, rocks, knives, small arms on the West Bank. This is not the promised Third Intifadeh: it is prep. The full offensive will combine waves of bomb belts, car bombs and rocket attacks from the West Bank. Abu Nasser is a principal in the planning and marshalling for the coming offensive. He is also a known killer, to be shot on sight. But not yet, not yet.

topics:
Israel