Palestinian Terrorists Planned to Murder Former Sephardi Chief Rabbi

(Ha'aretz) - The Shin Bet security service has arrested three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in eastern Jerusalem - French citizen Salah Hamuri, Mutsan Mohammed Yavsha, and Moussa Mohammed Darweesh - in connection with a plot to assassinate Shas spiritual leader and former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, according to information released Sunday. The three belong to the same eastern Jerusalem faction of the PFLP as those behind the murder of cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001. Ze'evi's killers, jailed in Jericho, had apparently given their blessing to the attack on the rabbi. The group had carried out surveillance of Yosef's Jerusalem residence, which one of them knew from his time as a delivery boy for a grocery store in the city. Security sources told Israel Radio that PFLP militants are looking for every opportunity to harm Israeli public figures. The dominant presence of the organization in eastern Jerusalem and the fact that eastern Jerusalem residents can easily access targets in the western part of the city dramatically improves the organization's capabilities, the sources said.


2005-04-18 00:00:00

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