Man jailed for al-Qaida links
The case of Nabil Okal, 29, marked the first time Israel has convicted a Palestinian of having ties to al-Qaida.
As a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas operating in the Gaza Strip, Okal travelled to Afghanistan in 1998, where he met a bin Laden deputy and attended a training camp, according to the indictment.
At the camp, Okal learned how to make bombs, including those with chemical substances. He was arrested in June 2000 in the Gaza Strip on his way back to Afghanistan to receive more training, the indictment said.
Okal’s lawyer, Tamim Younis, said his client denied all the Israeli allegations. Okal sat quietly in the court at Erez, a Gaza Strip checkpoint, as the sentence was read aloud in Hebrew and translated to him in Arabic.
Military Prosecutor Captain Ronen Shor said Okal never joined al-Qaida, but he trained with the group with the intent of bombing Israeli targets.
After the training in Afghanistan, Okal “came back to form and set up a military force to make military actions against Israeli targets here in the Gaza Strip and also here in Israel”, Mr Shor said.
Also yesterday, two Palestinian farmers were killed by Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip. Israeli tanks fired shells and machine guns in an open area in the village of Abassan, killing two men, ages 60 and 29, and wounding four others with shrapnel and gunshots, Palestinian security officials said.
Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the independent Palestinian Centre for Public Opinion among 1,100 West Bank residents indicates support for the uprising against Israeli occupation is holding relatively steady at 40.6%, compared to 38.6% three months ago.
When asked how much longer they can tolerate the economic hardships of the conflict, only 18.4% of respondents said they could hold out for another four months, compared to 64.2% three months ago.
“The results highlight the dramatic economic effects the uprising has had on Palestinian lives,” said Palestinian pollster Toni Selsa.
