Bombers visited activist group before Tel Aviv attack
From Kelly Wallace
CNN
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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Two British men who Israeli police say took part in a suicide bombing last week visited a pro-Palestinian activist's Gaza apartment five days before the attack, members of the International Solidarity Movement said Monday.
But group members said the Britons had no connection with their organization.
The International Solidarity Movement protests Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Its Web site says it uses "nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge" Israeli policies.
Israeli police said Asif Hanif blew himself up and killed three people early Wednesday outside a Tel Aviv cafe. Police said they suspect Omar Khan Sharif also planned to carry out a suicide attack but had a problem with his explosive device and fled. He remains the focus of an intense Israeli manhunt.
"The two Britons ... never made contact with the [International Solidarity Movement], never registered to join us and never attended our mandatory training and orientation," group spokeswoman Huwaida Arraf said at a news conference. "There is in fact no connection to be made."
Group volunteer Raphael Cohen said about 15 people visited an International Solidarity Movement apartment in Rafah, Gaza, on April 25. Among those attending were four Britons seeking to prepare a summer camp in Rafah, three Italians and the two British men accused of carrying out the Tel Aviv attack, Cohen said.
Cohen said he and his colleagues offered them tea and asked general questions, such as their names and whether they were affiliated with any group.
"The two accused Britons answered that they weren't with any particular organization ...," Cohen said.
"They were mostly silent," Cohen said. "There were a lot of people. I was concentrating on ensuring that everyone would be safe when we went to the site where" American protester Rachel Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer on March 16. Corrie, 23, was working with the International Solidarity Movement.
After spending about 15 minutes in the apartment, Cohen said he, his colleagues and the 15 others, including the suspected bombers, placed a flower at the site where Corrie was killed. The people "that visited us [then] went their own way," Cohen said.
After seeing pictures of the men on television, Cohen said he knew instantly that they were the two who came to the apartment in Gaza. "I was really, really shocked," he said.
"I saw the pictures and thought for us, as a movement, the International Solidarity, that we would have a lot of problems because of this, in spite of the fact we have no connection to them, we didn't know them," he said. "It's just, you know, by chance."
Asked if the International Solidarity Movement would do anything differently in the future to screen people who attend its meetings or rallies, Cohen said, "We will be more careful who we let in our apartment."
However, Cohen said the group "cannot be responsible for all people who come across ISM people."
"The most important people that these two bombers saw were the Israeli security officers in the country who let them into Gaza and out of Gaza," he said. "Those are the people responsible for the security, not the ISM; we are not a security organization."
The Israeli government suspects the two Britons crossed into Israel from Amman, Jordan, and traveled from Gaza into Israel to carry out the attack.
The Israeli government has accused members of the International Solidarity Movement of breaking the law and assisting terror groups. It has decided to have a "zero tolerance ... toward these so-called peace activists," an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman told CNN.
The spokesman said that any activists who are found to be breaking the law or aiding terror organizations may be detained or deported.
He said this decision was made before the Tel Aviv bombing and was not linked to revelations about the two suspects.
Cohen said the Israeli government's decision shows the government "does not want people to know what is happening in this country."
