Last update - 00:00 29/10/2006
Tira resident accused of helping Al-Aqsa militants prepare attacks
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
A 20-year-old Tira resident was indicted Sunday in the Tel Aviv District Court on charges of assisting the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah's military wing, in preparing terrorist attacks.
The indictment charges that Warud Qasem, an Israeli Arab, joined the organization three months ago and helped plan a bombing to be carried out in a Ra'anana restaurant bombing.
According to the prosecution, Qasem maintained contacts with Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades militants in Nablus and Tul Karm and consented to their request that she try to smuggle an explosive device from Nablus to Ramallah.
Qasem worked at the time in a Ra'anana supermarket, and the group had planned that her cousin, a Palestinian illegally residing in Israel, would place the device in the Spaghettim restaurant in Ra'anana.
Qasem was arrested in Al-Bira, near Ramallah, with a 5 kilogram explosive device in her possession.
She is suspected of having driven an Al-Aqsa cell leader to Ramallah with the explosive device.
Even so, the indictment states that Warud refused to drive the cell leader to Israel.
She is being accused of aiding an enemy, maintaining contacts with a foreign agent, and membership in a terrorist organization.
Warud's cousin and two other Palestinians, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade militants suspected of delivering the device to Warud, have also been arrested.