19 Palestinians rounded up during commemorative ceremony

Source: AP, 10-4-2007
JERUSALEM (al-Quds) --"Israeli" authorities on Tuesday said they have arrested 19 Palestinians for (allegedly) planning to set off a huge car bomb in Tel Aviv over the Jewish holiday of Passover.
The suspects are all were Hamas members from the West Bank town of Qalqiliya, the Shin Bet security agency said in a statement.
The agency said the arrests took place in late March, but details were only cleared for publication on Tuesday, the day after the weeklong holiday ended.
Hamas officials in Qalqiliya denied the account and said they were not involved in any plot.
Shin Bet claimed a Palestinian man who apparently intended to blow himself up drove a car packed with 220 pounds of explosives into the Tel Aviv area, then, for reasons not yet clear, returned to Qalqiliya where the car later exploded through a technical malfunction. No one was hurt.
The would-be bomber was able to enter "Israel" unhindered because he has an "Israeli" Arab stepmother and holds an "Israeli" identity card, Shin Bet claimed. It claimed the car had "Israeli" license plates.
Palestinian police officials in the town said the 19 suspects weren`t connected to any bombing. They said the Palestinians were rounded up at a Hamas ceremony marking the third anniversary of the "Israeli" assassination of the group`s founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Police said the car held less than 2 pounds of explosives and that it was unlikely Hamas was connected because the bomb was so small. However, they said it remained unclear why the car was carrying explosives.