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40

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Hamas Killers
Becoming Bolder

The murder of a pregnant Ariel woman underscored the danger Israel faces
from Palestinians dead set against peace.

LARRY DERFNER ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

F

eb. 18, was a great one for
Hamas.
On the Israeli evening
news, the Islamic funda-
mentalist organization sent
chills through viewers as one of
its young "martyrs," in a video-
tape made last summer, was
shown talking dreamily about
how he was going to kill an Is-
raeli and go to heaven.
A couple of hours later that
night, two or three Hamas
members crouched at the side
of the Trans-Samarian High-
way and fired 15 shots into the
car in which Tsippora Sasson
was riding with her family on
their way home to Ariel. Mrs.
Sasson, five months pregnant,
was killed. The terrorists es-
caped.
Never has Hamas been so
bold nor so effective. The or-
ganization has only a half-
dozen or so death squads,
known as Iz a-Din el-
Kassem, operating in the West
Bank and Gaza, but they have
cornered the market on terror
against both Jews and Pales-
tinians.
Of the 21 Israelis killed since
the Rabin-Arafat accord of Sept.
13, Hamas is responsible for 14
of them. Of the 19 Palestinians
killed in the first three weeks of
February for "collaborating"
with Israel — meaning any-
thing from being a snitch for the
Shin Bet (Israel's undercover
police force) to breaking a strike
— 12 were killed by Iz a-Din el-
Kassem.
The gangs are terribly effi-
cient; a single Kalatchnikov
submachine gun was passed be-
tween Hamas killers over the
last three months to kill six dif-
ferent Israelis, the head of the
Shin Bet told the cabinet.
Among the victims were Mrs.
Sasson and Shin Bet agent
Noam Cohen.
After Mr. Cohen's murder
earlier this month, Hamas dis-
tributed another videotape in
the territories: it showed Mr.
Cohen's murderer, masked and
holding a rifle, bragging about
how he had lured the agent into
thinking he would turn in-
former, then arranged the meet-
ing at which the agent was
killed. (Two other Shin Bet men
were wounded.)
Iz a-Din el-Kassem also said

A soldier
checks a Gaza City fruit stand.

it was setting up a special cell
for the sole purpose of killing
Shin Bet agents.
Another Hamas unit calling
itself the "Department of Psy-
chological Warfare" has sur-
faced. It concentrates on
intimidating Palestinian col-
laborators, and in one leaflet it
threatened to torture those who
refused to give themselves up:
"They will be invited for an
unpleasant visit, where they
will (end up) forgetting their
mother's name."
Since the recent spate of
killings, and especially since

The half-dozen or
so Iz a-Din
el-Kassem death
squads have
cornered the
market on terror

Mrs. Sasson's murder, the army
has increased its forces in the
territories, trying to catch the
terrorists. Gazans going to work
in Israel were being subjected
to lengthier searches. On the

roads near the Strip, police
roadblocks were checking cars
with Gazan license plates.
These measures were taken
in lieu of tightening the closure
of the territories, and keeping
tens of thousands of Palestin-
ian workers from earning their
salaries across the Green Line.
Such a move was threatened by
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
and Army Chief of Staff Ehud
Barak, but closures are always
temporary and limited, and
they can be broken by the most
enterprising terrorists. Taking
away the livelihood of Pales-
tinians also would chip away at
their support for the peace
process, which has been run-
ning low for months as Israeli
soldiers remain in control and
no evidence of new Palestinian
power or prosperity is seen.
On the Israeli political front,
the explanations for the up-
surge in Hamas killings have
been monotonous: the govern-
ment says the terrorists are try-
ing to torpedo the peace process,
while the opposition claims the
peace process is encouraging
the attacks.
After Mrs. Sasson's murder,
the most militant West Bank
settlers went a little wilder than
usual, marching into Ariel's