Beduin shooter's parents remanded for 4 days

The two allegedly knew of their daughter's intention to launch gun attack on Border Police base.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN
shot terrorist 248.88 ap (photo credit: AP)
shot terrorist 248.88 ap
(photo credit: AP)
The parents of a 16-year-old Beduin girl who launched a lone gun attack on a Border Police base at Tel Shoket junction in the Negev were remanded for a further four days in custody on Sunday afternoon. The parents were arrested on suspicion that they knew of their daughter's intention to carry out the attack yet failed to take steps to stop her. Following Saturday's attack, in which the 16-year-old was shot dead, police found several letters believed to be written by the girl in which she expressed her willingness to be a "martyr." The girl, identified by police as Basma Awad al-Nabari, from the Beduin town of Hura, near Beersheba, arrived at the base's entrance around 1:45 p.m. Saturday, carrying a black backpack and concealing an FN Herstal handgun. The base guard asked the girl what she was doing at the base. She then pulled out the gun and attempted to open fire. The base guard pushed the weapon away, but she managed to fire several shots before seeking cover under a nearby fence. Speaking in Arabic, the base guard attempted to talk the girl into surrendering and promised her safety, but got no response. After a call for back up was issued, the guard's commanding officer, Ch.-Insp. Ophir Yabarkan arrived on the scene and spotted the girl crouching and firing at the base. Yabarkan proceeded to shoot and kill her. A police bomb squad, assisted by a robot, searched her corpse for explosives, while police officers backed by a helicopter scanned the area for further attackers. The Border Police's response to the attack was praised by Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen and Border Police head Cmdr. Yisrael Yitzhak, both of whom arrived at the scene. A police source told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that a search of the girl's "personal equipment" recovered evidence "showing that this is a terror attack. We are checking the possibility that she had collaborators, and that someone may have driven her to the scene of the attack." "According to what we have found, this was a well-planned attack. The gun was carefully concealed. A big attack was averted here," the source added. The investigation is being led by the Negev Police's Central Unit and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). The source said the Nabari clan was "notorious" to police due to a string of previous offenses, including an arson attack on a plot of land owned by the Jewish National Fund near Hura, and an assault "in broad daylight" on a JNF employee. The clan was also involved in illegal construction on JNF land, the police source said. Beduin in the South were being incited to jihad and racist violence, the source said. "Most Beduin have relatives in Gaza, the family connections are well known. But we don't expect an Israeli citizen to carry out such an attack. We don't seek to blame an entire community, but this population is being exposed to incitement." Police have kept a watchful eye on attempts by Palestinian and global al-Qaida terrorist elements to infiltrate the Beduin community, arresting two men from Rahat last May for plotting terrorist attacks via the Internet with al-Qaida members overseas and choosing civilian and military sites as targets. The men were charged with membership in a terrorist organization, aiding the enemy during a time of war and transferring information to the enemy with intent to harm national security. Elsewhere Saturday, IDF soldiers from the Golani Brigade fired at a cell of Palestinian terrorists who were attempting to plant explosive devices on the border with Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Two of the terrorists were killed in the gunfire, the army said. One was identified as Jamil Kouffa of Global Islamic Jihad. Kouffa had been involved in previous attempts to place explosives on the border, including some that killed IDF soldiers. According to Palestinian sources, a small number of IDF troops entered northern Gaza and fired several times. The soldiers recovered a bomb the terrorists had attempted to plant.