'We had over 50 houses booby-trapped'

Thursday April 25, 2002 00:18

by Al-Ahram Weekly - Via The irish Times

Who blew up Jenin? Palestinians say it was an Israeli massacre; Israel says it was fighting terrorists.This is an edited version of the story of a Palestinian bomb-maker. It appeared in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram

Omar is a Palestinian fighter, a bomb maker from the Jenin refugee camp. He and other "engineers" made hundreds of explosive devices and carefully chose their locations. "We had more than 50 houses booby-trapped around the camp. We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them," he said.

"We cut off lengths of mains water pipes and packed them with explosives and nails. Then we placed them about four metres apart throughout the houses - in cupboards, under sinks, in sofas."

The fighters hoped to disable the Israeli army's tanks with much more powerful bombs placed inside rubbish bins on the street. More explosives were hidden inside the cars of Jenin's most wanted men.

Connected by wires, the bombs were set off remotely, triggered by the current from a car battery. According to Omar, everyone in the camp, including the children, knew where the explosives were located so that there was no danger of civilians being injured. It was the one weakness in the plan.

"We were betrayed by the spies among us," he says. The wires to more than a third of the bombs were cut by soldiers accompanied by collaborators. "If it hadn't been for the spies, the soldiers would never have been able to enter the camp. Once they penetrated the camp, it was much harder to defend."

And what about the explosion and ambush on Tuesday of last week (April 9th) which killed 13 soldiers? "They were lured there," he says. "We all stopped shooting and the women went out to tell the soldiers that we had run out of bullets and were leaving."

The women alerted the fighters as the soldiers reached the booby-trapped area.

"When the senior officers realised what had happened, they shouted through megaphones that they wanted an immediate ceasefire. We let them approach to retrieve the men and then opened fire. Some of the soldiers were so shocked and frightened that they mistakenly ran towards us."

Al-Ahram is a Cairo-based newspaper. Its web address is www.ahram.org.eg. Omar says he escaped Jenin on April 11th; his story appeared in the April 18-24 edition of Al-AhramWeekly