'Gaza-based PRC denies responsibility for Eilat attack'
LAST UPDATED: 08/19/2011 16:44
Statement comes after group's leadership is targeted by IAF; spokesman says Israel fingering it to divert from internal problems, AFP says.
PRC terrorists at Gaza press conference Photo: Reuters
The
Popular Resistance Committees, the Gaza-based Palestinian terror
organization fingered and targeted by Israel for Thursday's deadly
terror attack near Eilat, has denied any involvement in the attack, the
group told AFP on Friday.
A PRC spokesman praised the attack, but
said his group doesn't claim responsibility for launching it. "The
occupation wants to pin this operation on us in order to escape its own
internal problems," he said, according to AFP.
RELATED:
IAF planes strike in Gaza after rockets slam South
'Israeli strikes on Gaza ploy to thwart statehood bid'
Eight Israelis, including a soldier from the Golani Brigade, were killed Thursday in a multi-stage attack in the South carried out by terrorists who infiltrated from Egypt.
On
Thursday evening the IAF bombed the southern Gaza Strip, killing the
leadership of the PRC, who Israeli officials said had orchestrated the
attacks.
The PRC members killed in the retaliatory IAF air strike included the
head of the terror group Kamal Nirab, who the Shin Bet (Israel Security
Agency) said had personally directed and planned the attack.
Another man killed in the strike was identified as Amas Hamed, commander
of the PRC’s military wing and a resident of Rafah. The Shin Bet said
that Hamed was involved in the abduction of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in
June 2006 and oversaw numerous attacks against Israel including suicide
bombings and rocket attacks.
Two other known PRC terrorists, including one who was also involved in Schalit’s abduction, were also killed in the air strike.
“The terrorists were directly involved in the attacks along the Israeli-Egyptian border,” a security official said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that the IDF would escalate
its response to the attacks. Egypt had lost its grip over Sinai
Peninsula and terrorist organizations were able to move around there
freely, he said.
“The IDF has already struck the heads of the PRC in Gaza and if there
will be a need, the strikes will intensify,” Barak said. “The IDF will
use all of the force necessary to protect Israel’s citizens and to
enable a normal way of life in the country.”
