A New Fear For Israel

By Matt Rees, Jamil Hamad and Aharon Klein

Israel's latest sweep of Palestinian towns has unearthed a worrying sign that an old foe is stepping up its role in the current intifadeh. So far, during the 22-month wave of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, Hizballah, has limited its involvement to training Palestinians from other terrorist groups, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and helping build their military capability. But Israeli intelligence sources tell TIME that during Israel's invasion of Hebron two weeks ago, officials arrested a Hizballah operative who was planning a potentially devastating strike within Israel. The officials say the operative, a Lebanese-born Canadian man known as Abu Ahmed, had been scouting locations for large-scale attacks similar to a failed bomb attempt at a gas depot in May that would have demolished a residential neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Abu Ahmed's arrest, combined with news last month that a 35-year-old Israeli with relatives in Lebanon had been working for Hizballah, has given rise to fears that a big terrorist strike is being planned again. Abu Ahmed is being interrogated by the Israelis, who hope he will lead them to other Hizballah operatives in the West Bank.

--By Matt Rees, Jamil Hamad and Aharon Klein