TEL AVIV, Israel, April 10 (UPI) -- A foiled Palestinian bombing in Israel may indicate divisions within Hamas and might lessen Palestinians' chances of entering Israel to join their spouses.
Israel's security agency, the Shabak, said that the Islamic Hamas had planned to detonate a powerful bomb in the Tel Aviv area during the Passover holiday that ended Monday.
It rigged a van with some 100 kilos "of powerful explosives and considerable shrapnel." The driver drove the van into Israel but returned to the West Bank town of Qalqilya where the bomb exploded.
The Israel Shabak security service said the explosion was a "work accident." The Shabak did not say why the driver returned to Qalqilya. The man allegedly entered Israel through a crossing point in the security barrier that runs in and around the West Bank. The barrier has been extremely effective in preventing incursions, but the crossing points proved to be the weak link since soldiers who man them usually wave Israelis through.
The driver, who was not named, is a Palestinian, a resident of Qalqilya who married an Israeli Arab woman and therefore obtained a regular blue Israeli identity card and temporary Israeli license plates.
The attempted attack is now likely expected to strengthen the hand of legislators who want to extend a temporary ban on entry permits to Palestinians and residents of enemy countries who marry Israelis.
At a debate at the Knesset Interior Committee in January, a Shabak lawyer identified only by his first name "Danny" noted Palestinians who obtained Israeli papers through marriage to Israelis were involved in 14 percent of the suicide bombings.
The attack might also reflect divisions within Hamas, whose militant armed wing does not heed Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh but answers to the movement's more radical leaders in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
