Islamic Jihad blame Israeli intelligence for car bomb
His brother was also killed in the explosion, which the group blamed on Israeli intelligence, and it vowed to retaliate. Mahmoud Majzoub, a member of the group’s policy-making Shura Council body and its leader in Sidon, 24 miles south of Beirut, was walking with his brother, Nidal, near the central square of this coastal city when a parked car was detonated by remote control, security officials said.
Mahmoud Majzoub survived the blast but died during surgery, while Nidal Majzoub was killed instantly, said the security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information.
Islamic Jihad’s representative in Lebanon said Nidal Majzoub also was a member of the group, which has continued to launch attacks on Israel since a February 2005 truce that the main militant group Hamas, which swept Palestinian legislative elections, has respected.
Before Mahmoud died, Islamic Jihad’s representative in Lebanon, Abu Imad Rifai, blamed Israeli intelligence for the attack.
“This morning the Israeli Mossad detonated an explosive charge. ... This is the second time Mahmoud is targeted, and I believe it comes in the framework of Israeli escalation against the Palestinian people, particularly Islamic Jihad,” Rifai told The Associated Press.
Mahmoud, 41, and his wife and child were wounded in an explosion in 1998 in Sidon when their booby-trapped car blew up.
In Israel, military officials said they had heard about the bombing through media reports, but had no additional information.
Rifai rejected the possibility that other Palestinian or Lebanese groups were behind the attack.
“No one has an interest in assassinating him except the Israeli Mossad,” he said.
Palestinians have blamed the assassinations of several militant leaders on Israel.
But some of the killings of leading members of Palestinian groups were the result of intra-Palestinian feuds.
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