To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (4391 ) 5/16/2002 10:29:20 AM From: Scoobah Respond to of 32591 They just won't stop until they're all dead: IDF thwarts double terror attack, kills PA officer By Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent, Ha'aretz Service and agencies Thursday, May 16, 2002 Sivan 5, 5762 Israel Time: 17:26 (GMT+3) Last update - 17:14 16/05/2002 The body of Mohammed Ganam, a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, is carried out of the family house during his funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah Thursday. (Photo: AP) IDF forces prevented a double terror attack in Jerusalem Thursday while searching for Palestinian militants near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Mohammed Ganam, 22, from el-Bireh and Iyad Dradama, 23, a Jordanian national living in Ramallah, both Hamas activists, had planned to carry out the attacks in Jerusalem. Ganam tried to escape, but was shot and killed by troops from the elite IDF Duvdevan unit in Beitunia. Dradama was arrested. The IDF arrested a total of 23 suspected Palestinian terrorists Thursday, in operations throughout the West Bank. Palestinians reported later Thursday that IDF forces had left the West Bank village of Taluza, north of Nablus, after arresting 19 suspected terrorists, including several senior Hamas members in an operation that began in the early hours of Thursday. A second elite unit was in action in Ramallah, where two Islamic Jihad activists, Mohammed Arabe and Omar Shlush were also arrested. The two planned a terror attack in Jerusalem, and led Shin Bet investigators to their hide-out, in which an explosive belt was hidden. IDF helicopters attacked Palestinian positions in Khan Yunis in Gaza late Wednesday night in retaliation for the firing of three mortar shells at the settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Strip. The airborne attack was aimed at taking out the terror cell responsible for firing the mortar shells. Mortar fire has resumed in the Strip over the last two days, following a period of several weeks in which no mortars were launched. This is the first time in several months that gunship helicopters have been used against targets in the Gaza Strip.