8.02.2004 In the last two months the ISA and the Israel Police have investigated two Israeli citizens, brothers and residents of Reina, Near Nazareth. The investigation of the Atmallah brothers revealed an attempt to establish a terrorist infrastructure among Israeli Arabs, which was financed and guided by Hezbollah in order to perpetrate terrorist attacks inside Israel.
Jassan Atmallah, 40, a senior Balad Party activist and member of the movements central committee, had previously been held in administrative detention three times for a variety of security offenses. He served as the head of the infrastructure and had been recruited by Hezbollah due to his links with the Abu Musa group. In December 2003, Atmallah took his brother Sirhan to a meeting with Hezbollah terrorists in Turkey and to military training in Lebanon, financed and directed by Hezbollah. At the same time, he began to develop several business ventures with Turkish merchants in order to provide cover for his deals on behalf of Hezbollah. For example, he began to import diapers from Turkey. Atmallah admitted that he had been in contact with Ibrahim Ajwa, head of the Abu Musa group in Jordan. Ajwa is known to have worked as a Hezbollah recruiter in Lebanon. Sirhan Atmallah, brother of Jassan, 25, a regional Balad activist in Nazareth, has been a known disturber-of-the-peace in recent years. While in Lebanon (see above), he underwent 10 days military training by Hezbollah. He was instructed in the use of various weapons, putting together bombs based on TNT and C4, how to tell he was being followed, etc. During conversations in Turkey, Atmallah discussed the following with Hezbollah terrorists: establishing a terrorist infrastructure among Israeli Arabs that would be financed by Hezbollah and under its military guidance, preparing a list of candidates for military training, types of war materiel that Sirhan would need, etc. BPI
