Raid Links Palestinian Forces, Militants

An overnight raid on the main Palestinian security compound in Gaza turned up anti-tank missiles, grenades and equipment to make other weapons, proving Palestinian security forces were supplying arms to militant groups, the Israeli army said Monday.

The three-hour raid left the Palestinian Preventive Security force complex in ruins. Palestinians denied the Israeli charges, saying the base was evacuated a year ago and has stood empty since.

Palestinians have pointed to raids like this when rebutting Israeli charges that Palestinian security is not doing enough to stop attacks by militants, saying that Israel itself is responsible for decimating the official forces.

Earlier, Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a building on the east side of Gaza City, Palestinian witnesses said. It was not clear what the target was.

Ambulances raced to the scene, a sparsely populated area near an old industrial zone. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The witnesses said at least two Israeli attack helicopters were involved in the raid on the building, and at least seven explosions were heard. Several Israeli warplanes and three helicopters were flying over the area, they said.

Palestinian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israeli tanks fired 11 shells at the Gaza neighborhood where the helicopters struck. horrified

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

The attack was the third air strike in as many nights in Gaza. Early Monday, Israeli forces pulled out of Gaza City after helicopters and tanks attacked the main headquarters of Palestinian security. The night before, helicopters fired missiles at a metal factory in Khan Younis in central Gaza. The Israelis charged that it was a weapons factory.

Palestinians denounced the previous air strikes as Israeli aggression, while the Israelis said they were part of a campaign against Palestinian terrorism.

Meanwhile, an Israeli-Arab man who tried to storm the cockpit of an Israeli jetliner told interrogators he wanted to crash the plane into a Tel Aviv building in a Sept. 11-like attack, Turkey's private NTV television reported Monday.

Security guards aboard the airliner on Sunday overpowered the man, who was apparently armed with a pocket knife and threatened a stewardess. None of the 170 passengers on board the Boeing 757 were harmed and the plane landed safely.

On the one hand, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger, the incident shows that El Al's renowned security system is effective. On the other, El Al will have to figure out how a passenger slipped through tight security carrying a knife.

Israeli police searched the man's home and have been questioning his relatives.

The hijacking suspect, identified by the Turkish semi-official Anatolia news agency as 23-year-old Israeli Arab, Tawfiq Fukra, was being questioned by anti-terrorism squads in Istanbul.

NTV television said the man told interrogators he wanted to force the plane to return to Tel Aviv and that he intended to crash it into a building there. The plane was on a Tel Aviv to Istanbul flight.

The report could not be verified independently.

Anatolia quoted Fukra as telling interrogators he had "carried out the action to protest" against Israel.

In northern Israel, police searched the home of Fukra's father, confiscated a computer and questioned several relatives who were all later released, Israel's Army Radio said.

El Al general manager Amos Shapira said the passenger "tried to reach the cockpit with what we assume now is a small pocket knife," but was overpowered by security guards.

Army Radio quoted Fukra's father, Salah, as saying his son shouldn't be called a hijacker just because he fought with a stewardess. He said his son was going to Turkey for vacation.

Okay Cakirlar, an official at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, said El Al Flight 581 sent out a hijacking signal as it approached Istanbul.

The suspect was later seen being taken out of the airport in handcuffs by undercover police. The Israeli embassy said Israel had not yet made any request for his extradition.

Nehama Snelzo, an Israeli tourist, said the alleged would-be hijacker looked scared when he was overpowered.

"He seemed to be very scared, he started saying 'I'm going to Istanbul to see a friend, I'm not a threat,'" Snelzo said.

Another passenger, Viv Gulmez, said the man was sitting just in front of her and he looked suspicious.

"He was going to toilet very often, and once he made a telephone call from the plane," Gulmez told private CNN-Turk television.

Snelzo said after the incident, the flight attendants made an announcement, telling "us not to get scared, to sit down, not to get up and be calm."

The man first threatened a flight attendant with a knife and then kicked the door of the cockpit but the door was locked, some passengers said. Security guards posing as passengers subdued him, they said.

El Al's security includes armed guards at check-in, on-board marshals and extensive searches of luggage. Passengers are told to arrive three hours ahead of flights to allow enough time for the security checks.

The first and last successful hijacking of an El Al plane was in July 1968, when a flight from Rome was seized by members of the extremist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and forced to land in Algiers. Passengers and crew were held hostage there, with the last of them not released until five months later.

A September 1970 hijacking attempt failed when sky marshals shot and killed one hijacker and captured his accomplice.