1. PRISONER RELEASE APPROVED; PALESTINIANS SAY ISRAEL PROMISED TO COORDINATE BUT RENEGED… Israel’s cabinet approved the release of 400 more Palestinian prisoners at its weekly session on Sunday, but the gesture has been marred by Palestinian complaints that Israel reneged on its promise to coordinate the release with the Palestinian Authority. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had promised at a February summit meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas to free 900 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails. It is estimated that Israel is holding about 7,000 Palestinian security prisoners. Five hundred were released in March. Sharon has frozen the other part of his Sharm A-Sheikh commitment: three of five Palestinian towns scheduled for a return of security control to the P.A. have not been turned over. Israel says it’s because the P.A. broke its word by not confiscating the weapons of specific terrorists identified in the towns already transferred.
2. MASSIVE INDUSTRIAL SPYING SCANDAL SHAKES ISRAEL… The arrests of 18 people including senior corporate executives and the private investigators they hired have sent shockwaves through Israel. The industrial espionage revolves around the use of a computer virus called “The Trojan Horse” to obtain secret information of the suspects’ competitors. In addition to those being held in Israel, British police are holding an Israeli believed to be the programmer who created the virus that was emailed to victims as part of an email attachment. According to police, the ‘Trojan horse’ provided the private investigators with total Internet access to the computers of the targeted companies. Senior executives of two of the major telephone companies, Pelephone and Cellcom, are in custody, along with executives from a leading Volvo automobile importer, the nation’s leading cable television network and a major bottled water company. Officials say damages, which are still being determined, extend beyond Israel in their scope.
3. ISRAEL STRIKES REFUGEE CAMP IN MISSILE ATTACK… Missiles fired into the Jabaliyya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip from unmanned Israeli aircraft interrupted preparations for launching mortars at Israeli targets, according to Israeli officials. Two Palestinians were injured in the incident, which took place early Monday morning. According to Israeli military sources, two teams of Palestinians were spotted setting up mortars. Three missiles were fired from unmanned drones destroying both launchers. The frequency of Israeli attacks against targets in Gaza has sharply diminished since a de facto cease-fire went into effect on February 8. Israel, however, is losing patience in the face of what it counts as the launching of sixty mortars and ten Qassam rockets at Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip over the past two weeks.
4. SHOOTING DEATHS OF WOMAN AND 4-YEAR-OLD NIECE MIGHT NOT BE TERROR… Police are not jumping to the conclusion that the pre-dawn shooting ambush which killed a woman and her four-year-old niece as they returned from a Bar Mitzva celebration was a terror attack. The family of the victims was traveling in their car near the Ramle prison in central Israel when shooting broke out. Four other family members were injured in the attack. Police are investigating whether the shooting was a botched underworld revenge hit.