Both Palestinian and Irish sources decried reports that a Palestinian exile in Ireland, Jihad Jaara, escaped an assassination attempt and describe the story as a total fabrication.The Irish Times reported on August 9, that reports which alleged that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, tried to assassinate Jaara are false.
The story, which surfaced on the website of Israeli newspaper Yediodh Ahronoidt, has also appeared on websites all over the Middle East, said the Irish Times.
The newspaper quoted Dr. Hikmat Ajjuri, head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Ireland, as saying, ‘Jihad was with me the whole day on Thursday and we were laughing.It is a total fabrication and such a confusing piece of news.’ IMEMC had reported earlier this week that shots were fired at Jaara as he was making his way to the Palestinian Delegation office in Dubiln, and that he survived what was believed to be an assassination attempt.
In a separate occurence in 2005, The Irish Evening Herald newspaper reported that Irish police tracked two Israeli Mossad agents who had planned to assassinate Jaara. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman denied the report as baseless. Irish police sources told the newspaper that around the end of January, police managed to track the two Mossad agents who were collecting intelligence information on Jaara, which the Irish police believed was for the purpose of assassinating him.
Jaara and twelve of his colleagues were expelled to various European countries after Israel and the Palestinian Authority approved a deal to end the siege of the Nativity Church in Bethlehem in May 2002.
Jaara, who has been living in Dublin since he was deported, was the leader of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military wing of the Fatah movement in Bethlehem area.
