Attack 'sabotages hope of peace'
Wanted militant leader denies any involvement
3 Americans killed in bombing of convoy in Gaza
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
GAZA CITY—As Israeli helicopter gunships hovered overhead last night, pregnant with a deadly payload, the man for whom they were hunting proclaimed his innocence in an exclusive interview with the Star.
Yasser Zanoun, 39, became the man in the crosshairs at midday, with the first media reports saying his until now obscure militant group, the Popular Resistance Committees, was behind a deadly morning attack on an American diplomatic convoy in Gaza.
Three U.S. security men died and a fourth was injured in the roadside bombing just a few kilometres inside the heavily fortified Erez crossing from Israel. The attack prompted universal loathing, and fears the three-year Palestinian intifada has boiled over from more than simply an uprising against Israel, to a war on the Americans as well.
Zanoun, like every other Palestinian faction leader, has been in hiding for weeks, fearing assassination by Israel. Through his emissaries yesterday, he issued denials but declined interviews with everyone, including the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya networks on which the Arab world is wired.
But by mid-evening, as pressure mounted, Zanoun reconsidered, agreeing to share with the Star and the London Times his "message to the world."
A car was dispatched. A mesmerizing trek through Gaza City's decaying back alleys led to a darkened doorway flanked by twitchy gunmen.
Inside, Zanoun held court with a holstered pistol on the coffee table in front of him. This was not his home, but a "safe house " which he would leave the moment the interview ended.
His first words: "We are not cowards. If we had anything to do with this operation, we would openly say so.
"It does nothing for the Palestinian people, it does nothing for the Palestinian resistance.
"And when you look at the developments of this weekend, the glimpse of hope we received from the Geneva Agreement negotiations in Jordan, I can only conclude the opposite. This was an Israeli operation, like all the others before it, designed to sabotage any hope of peace."
The Mideast being home to any number of metaconspiracy theories, Zanoun was not the first to suggest Israeli culpability.
But in his denial, just as in the denials yesterday of Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Zanoun also acknowledged growing Palestinian frustration at a spate of recent U.S. statements on the conflict: The veto of a U.N. resolution against Israel's separation fence, the U.S.'s defence of recent Israeli strikes on Syria and the southern Gaza Strip community of Rafah — all are seen here as evidence of increasing American bias against the Palestinian cause.
But even as Zanoun spoke to the Star, Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority police were busy on the other side of the city arresting several of his deputies on suspicion of involvement in the morning attack.
When pressed, Zanoun said he sent runners to each of his resistance committee cells to inquire whether it was their work. All returned saying no.
"We are not stupid. We recognize the difference between those who would occupy us and those who would help us," he said. "When an American soldier is killed in Iraq, I am happy because I know it is an act of resistance against occupation. But when a diplomatic convoy is attacked in Gaza, I am equally disgusted.
"We know this convoy was here to help us. They were here to talk to Palestinian students about going on to study in America. Just as Rachel Corrie (the American protester killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah last spring) was our guest, they were our guests."
Pressed again, Zanoun eventually admitted another possibility — that yesterday's bombing was the work of a handful of Palestinian militants acting on their own.
"If that is what happened, it was a mistake. A huge mistake. But I can't believe it is so."
Zanoun's brother Awni, seated at his side, chimed in with an afterthought. "We have no animosity toward the American people. Our dispute is with the U.S. administration and its bias toward Israel."
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) are relatively unknown in a conflict in which most headlines point to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Formed at the start of the current uprising, the group's core is comprised of former Palestinian Authority security men who defected to the militant side after the outbreak of violence.
The PRC is different in two ways. Though nearly all are Muslim, these fighters don't necessarily dream of Islamic revolution, but simply of ending the Israeli occupation. And the PRC, said Zanoun, is all about resistance, not aggression. They have no suicide bombers.
At Hamouda Junction yesterday, the aftermath of the convoy attack offered few clues as to who was responsible. Witnesses to the bombing described a black wire running from the blast crater, suggesting the strike was deliberately triggered by an operative watching near the roadside.
Observers in Gaza said the style of the operation had all the hallmarks of Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement led by Arafat himself.
A 14-year-old Palestinian boy who refused to give his name described seeing the first of the three armoured diplomatic GMC Suburbans soaring six metres off the ground before crashing to a fiery halt. "One man crawled out of the wreckage, and there were pieces of bodies all over," said the youth.
A Western diplomatic source in Ramallah said the casualties were private security guards, all in their 30s, attached to defend the U.S. convoy.
"They are the disposables," the source said. "It's horrible to say, but they aren't diplomats or even embassy staff. Basically, they are mercenaries hired to protect the Americans."
Commenting on the attack, U.S. President George W. Bush said yesterday the Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror.
"The failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives ... and constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people's dream of statehood."
Israeli public radio correspondent Avi Isacharoff was crossing into the Gaza Strip just minutes behind the convoy when he heard the explosion. Rushing to the scene, he said he was unable to recognize the wreckage as the diplomatic vehicle he had stood alongside a short while earlier.
"It was chaotic. The car was completely wrecked, upside down," said Isacharoff, 30.
"The other cars in the convoy didn't stop to help. They must have been following some kind of protocol. They just raced from the scene, driving wildly."
The most important question — what happens now — remains anyone's guess. Last night, an aide to former PA security chief Mohammed Dahlan said he worries the rules will be different when the sun comes up.
"My fear is to wake up tomorrow to find a new era in which we have real chaos on both sides. A Palestinian power vacuum on one hand, and a far more aggressive Israeli government on the other."
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