The Israeli police reported that investigators are interrogating a resident of Kafer Qasem town, in northern Israel, suspected of driving a suicide bomber from Kafer Qasem Arab town to the Israeli town to Petah Tikva in March 2002.

 

The police stated that Islam Bodeir, from kafr Qasem, was arrested after the bomber’s companion, Ra’ed Abu Al Sarees, was detained in Ramat Gan without an entry permit to Israel.

During the course of interrogation, Abu Al Sarees, admitted that he accompanied the bomber to a Coffee Shop in Tel Aviv.

He, according to the police, picked the bomber from Nablus and drove him to Tel Aviv, and that the bombing was ordered by the Al Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of Fateh movement.

The police added that Abu Al Sarees met Bodeir through “criminal activities”, and that he asked him to drive the bomber and himself to Petah Tikva.

Bodeir, according to the Israeli police, admitted during the interrogation that they both went to Tel Aviv by a Taxi, and then the bomber went to the Coffee Shop.

Israeli online daily, Haaretz, reported that Bodeir said in his testimony that Abu Saris told him that the two passengers intend to carry illegal activity and did not mention anything about a suicide bombing.

Haaretz added that Bodeir suspected the intensions of the two and confronted them about his suspicions that they wanted to carry an attack, but he dropped them both at their destination in Petah Tikva
 
A 37-year old Israeli woman was killed and 28 were injured in the bombing.