Israelis quell attack from sea
By Jason Keyser -- Associated Press
Saturday, March 27, 2004----
JERUSALEM -- Hamas threatened again Friday to avenge Israel's assassination of its founder, but Israel managed to foil retaliatory attacks, shooting dead two Palestinians who emerged from the Mediterranean in wet suits and flippers. Another militant was killed in the West Bank when his explosives blew up prematurely.
Also Friday, Palestinian leaders criticized the United States for vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for killing Sheik Ahmed Yassin. The Hamas leader was struck by a missile Monday as he left a mosque in his wheelchair.
(...)
The radical Islamic group also held rallies in two West Bank cities, repeating its threats of revenge. In Ramallah, crowds shouted warnings for Israelis to prepare body bags. In Nablus, a few hundred men in black ski masks and military-style dress carried elaborate models of missiles. At one point, they torched a large model of an Israeli bus.
In the nearby Balata refugee camp, a militant in a car was torn apart when explosives he was carrying detonated accidentally, Palestinian security officials said. The blast killed Ahmed al-Abed of the militant Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the group said.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians in wet suits and flippers armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades emerged from the Mediterranean and fired toward a beachfront Israeli settlement, the army said.
(...)
Hamas claimed responsibility for the Thursday night attack on the Tel Katifa settlement.
In a farewell video, two attackers posed in their wet suits, with oxygen tanks strapped to their backs and goggles pulled up. The video showed a training session in which two men charged toward a rocky cliff, firing assault rifles.
The settlement attack was the first of "earthshaking operations to come," a Hamas leaflet said.
(...)
----
Read the rest
here.