September 10, 2001
Senior PA Officials Ignored Israeli Requests To Detain Terrorist Who Perpetrated Today's Attack In Nahariya And His Hamas Handler (Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

An identity card found adjacent to the suicide-terrorist who perpetrated the suicide-bombing on Sunday, September 9, 2001, in Nahariya, has apparently identified him as Muhammad Shaker Habishi, an Israeli citizen, a resident of Abu S'nan, born in 1953, and a member of the Ra'ad Tzalah faction of the Islamic Movement.

Several days ago, the Israeli security forces received information to the effect that Habishi had left his home and joined with Hamas terrorists in the Jenin area led by Kiam Adouan, one of Hamas' most senior military operatives, who has been involved in dispatching suicide-bombers to Israel. Repeated appeals by Israel to the Palestinian Authority to stop Adouan have gone unheeded.

Israel appealed to senior Palestinian Authority officials and requested that Habishi be located, detained, and sent back to Israel. Senior PA officials replied that Habishi was not in PA territory but in Israel, despite the fact that it had been made clear that he had joined Kiam Adouan and that he intended to perpetrate a suicide attack. The PA did nothing to detain Adouan and/or Habishi in spite of information that it had been given regarding the planned attack.

Last weekend, in the wake of additional information that reached the security forces to the effect that Habishi was still in the Jenin area, Israel again appealed to senior PA officials to take action to detain Habishi and to foil his plans.