A Palestinian man who allegedly foiled a suicide attack inside Israel was killed in Ramallah on Monday by gunmen belonging to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party. "The collaborator was executed after he confessed that he had been recruited by the Israeli authorities on December 17, 2002," said a statement issued by Fatah's armed wing, al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. The group claimed that the victim, whose name was not released, was responsible for the assassination by the IDF of two Hamas members in the Jenin area in the same year. The two were identified as Shaman Subuh and Mustapha Qash. The "collaborator" is from the village of Burkeen near Jenin. The group did not say when the "collaborator" was captured or how he was "executed." But it claimed that the man had been instructed by his Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) handlers to establish a cell belonging to Hamas's armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, in the Jenin area.
All the members of the cell were later arrested or killed by the IDF. One of them was arrested on May 3, 2003 on suspicion that he was about to carry out a suicide attack inside Israel. The name of the would-be suicide bomber wasn't released.