NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) — Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday arrested a Hamas commander they said was suspected of playing a key role in a 2002 attack that killed 30 civilians.
Omar Jabar was arrested overnight at a village in the Tulkarem area where he was a regional leader of the Islamist group, the armed forces said in a statement.
Jabar had been sought ever since the March 27, 2002 suicide attack at the Park Hotel in the Israeli resort of Netanya, which killed 30 civilians and wounded 143.
Two days after the attack during the Jewish Passover holiday, Israel launched a largescale blitz on the West Bank, eventually retaking control of major cities from which it had withdrawn as part of the 1993 Oslo accords.
Since 2002, Jabar was suspected of recruiting militants for "secret terror cells," the army added.
Palestinian security sources said Jaber, 50, was detained in the village of Bal'a together with his deputy Hani Barabra, 33.
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