Jihad Jibril’s suspected involvement in an ambush in northern Israel two months ago, in which six Israelis were killed, raises the possibility that the Palestinian guerrilla leader may have been the victim of an Israeli revenge operation.
Israel has been roundly blamed for Monday’s car-bomb killing of Jibril, 38, the son of Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ­ General Command.
Yet, at first glance, there seems little reason for the Israelis to go to the trouble of eliminating Jibril junior. The PFLP-GC’s participation in the intifada has been negligible and its influence confined to Lebanon and Syria rather than the West Bank and Gaza.
But Jibril is among a number of suspects implicated in a deadly roadside ambush on March 12 near the village of Matsuva in northern Israel, 3 kilometers south of the border with Lebanon. Six Israelis, five of them civilians, were gunned down by two assailants wearing Israeli Army uniforms who had taken up position on a hill overlooking the Shelomi-Kabri road. Both attackers were subsequently killed in a shoot-out with Israeli troops.
There is compelling circumstantial evidence to suggest that Hizbullah was involved in what was a well-planned and professionally executed operation, probably in cooperation with Palestinian allies such as the PFLP-GC, whose fighters would have carried out the attack.
The Israelis directed their initial investigation at West Bank Palestinians and Arab-Israelis. But no evidence was found to suggest that the attackers were from either community. Turning their attention to a possible crossing from Lebanon, the Israeli Army discovered a specially designed ladder hidden beneath a camouflage net in dense undergrowth about 200 meters to the north of the border fence, just west of the Hanita settlement.
The Israelis refuse to provide details of the ladder ­ which they admit being of “special design” ­ out of concern that it may be copied by Palestinians to cross a future fence separating Israel from the West Bank.
The Daily Star has learned, however, that the “ladder” was a crane-like device which could be extended over the border fence, allowing the fighters to be winched across and lowered the other side. The terrain at the scene of the crossing helped facilitate such a breach as the border fence runs along a steep escarpment, with the Lebanese side overlooking Israel.
UNIFIL said it found “inconclusive evidence” of a crossing ­ in the form of trampled vegetation ­ but could not confirm anyone had scaled the fence. The Israeli trackers estimated that six to eight people were involved in winching the fighters across.
The crossing occurred in a section of the border where Hizbullah maintains complete control. It is a strategic location with views of western Galilee all the way to Haifa, 40 kilometers to the south. Even residents of nearby Alma Shaab village are denied access to the area. Hizbullah fighters man an observation post at Labboune, in uneasy proximity to a Fijian UNIFIL position and an Israeli Army compound on the other side of the fence. The Hizbullah presence in the area is heavy.
Security sources with intimate knowledge of South Lebanon believe it would have been impossible for a group of people to have carried out a border crossing with a sophisticated “ladder” without the knowledge of the ever-vigilant Hizbullah fighters in the area.
The choice of location for the ambush also suggests Hizbullah involvement. Hizbullah’s observation post at Labboune has a clear view of the ambush site, 3 kilometers to the south. Fighters manning the observation post could have picked the location having spent months monitoring the Shelomi-Kabri road, assessing peak traffic times, troop movements in the area, helicopter flight routines.
The two fighters who carried out the ambush were probably specially trained Palestinians, allowing Hizbullah to maintain some plausible deniability if they had been captured alive. Fighters belonging to the PFLP-GC, which works under the auspices of Hizbullah in the South, are likely suspects. Fighters from Islamic Jihad, which is also close to Hizbullah, are another possibility.
The Matsuva ambush bore similarities to the PFLP-GC’s most famous operation, when two fighters in 1987 flew by hang-glider across the border, landed at an Israeli Army base and killed six soldiers before being shot dead themselves.
Hizbullah’s secretary-general, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, maintained his usual ambig-uity over Israeli accusations that the party was involved.
“Whatever the Israelis are accusing us of, be it realistic or not, is a great honor for us,” Nasrallah said.
If Hizbullah was involved, in the planning at least, it would be the first time the resistance has participated in a direct close-quarter attack against Israeli civilians. The ambush crossed all red lines in the tense stand-off between Hizbullah and the Israeli Army along the border, far transcending the periodic mortar shelling of Israeli outposts in the remote Shebaa Farms.
The lack of immediate retaliation by Israel to what was a breathtakingly audacious action indicated that the Israelis were wary of becoming embroiled in a tit-for-tat escalation along its northern border. However, diplomats in Beirut believe that Israel has not disregarded the ambush but added it to a “bank account of grievances” which could be used to justify military action in the future. A senior Israeli military source was quoted in the March 15 edition of the Maariv daily newspaper saying: “It wouldn’t be right to respond without a clear address.
“When we know who perpetrated the attack, there is no doubt that we will have to act against it with a tough hand,” the source said.
And this is where Jihad Jibril comes in.
The Israelis may have considered it expedient to take revenge on Jibril, an “expendable” Palestinian, whom they may have known or simply suspected of involvement in the Matsuva ambush. Such a scenario would have sent a message to Hizbullah and the PFLP-GC without the risk of igniting the Lebanon-Israel border, which an attack on the Hizbullah leadership, Syrian Army or Lebanese infrastructure may have provoked.

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