Posts tagged palestinian
IDF Thwarts Major Palestinian Terror Attack
Jan 8th
IDF soldiers captured close to a dozen pipe bombs at the Salem Crossing near Jenin in the northern West Bank on Sunday, thwarting what appears to have been a major terrorist attack, possibly against a nearby military court.
Four Palestinians were arrested at the crossing and were found to be in possession of 11 pipe bombs, a homemade pistol and a commando knife. They were transferred to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) for interrogation.
The soldiers shut down the crossing and ordered the Palestinian to undress and discovered three pipe bombs. Another eight were discovered in his bag together with a homemade pistol, several bullets and a commando knife. The four were last in line to enter the Samaria Military Court when one of the soldiers stationed at the crossing, from the Military Police, spotted wires protruding from under his jacket.
“I don’t remember such a large cache of bombs caught on one person,” Lt.-Col. Erez, commander of the Haruv Battalion said. Three other Palestinians who were in line with the man carrying the weapons were also detained. The IDF suspects that the attack was planned against the Samaria Military Court, since the line the Palestinians were standing in only goes into the court and back out.
The thwarted attack came a week after the IDF captured a number of weapons in a home in Kfar Salem, near Nablus, including an M-16 and an Uzi and after the Shin Bet recorded an increase in the number of attacks in December in the West Bank. source – JPost
Libyan Mercenaries Arrive in Gaza with Grad Multiple Rocket Launchers
Nov 11th
Fifty Libyan Muslim Brotherhood mercenaries arrived in the Gaza Strip from Tripoli last month – in time to take part in the Jihad Islami’s last missile offensive against Israel starting Oct. 29, debkafile’s military sources report. They arrived at the wheels of minivans on which were mounted the new Grad multiple rocket-launchers which Palestinian terrorists fired for the first time last month. These mobile rocket-launchers were last seen on the Libyan battlefield in use against Muammar Qaddafi’s army.
The rocket barrages fired from the Gaza Strip on Israel were launched using a multi-barrel rocket launcher,
The 50 mercenaries did not bother to paint over the Libyan national colors or replace the trucks’ Libyan license plates. Jihad Islami fighters kept them sequestered away from awkward questions about who sent them.
Gazan sources report the Libyan mercenaries left Tripoli on October 10 aboard two buses which drove them via Benghazi to Tobruk. They then entered Egypt as tourists.
On Oct. 21, the day Muammar Qaddafi was killed, they crossed the Suez Canal into the Sinai Peninsula.
The minivans mounted with the Grad multiple rocket launchers had been moved out of Libya by a separate route and were waiting in the care of Bedouin smugglers beside a Sinai wadi near the old copper mines of Ras Sudar. They looked quite new with no sign of having been in combat.
Our military sources report that, Qatar and the United Arab Republic had supplied these advanced rocket-launchers to assorted Libyan National Transitional Council militias, their accurate fire against designated targets intended to counter the precision of the Libyan army’s artillery.But their effectiveness was demonstrated most strikingly after Qaddafi’s fall in the Gaza Strip, where they instantly improved the Palestinian extremists’ aim against Israeli locations. Most of these rapid-firing missiles were also able to evade Israel’s Iron Dome missile interceptors. When the Palestinians reverted to their old weapons, they continued to miss their aim.
The Libyan convoy had to travel some 2,000 kilometers through Egypt to reach the Gaza Strip, raising questions about how it had failed to arouse the notice of local security units. Western sources discovered that the Egyptian Islamic Brotherhood had made all the necessary arrangements for the Libyan Brotherhood mercenaries’ long trek to Gaza under its protection, and more are on the way.
Furthermore, large sums of money would have been available to smooth their passage and that of the new Grads. Our intelligence sources report that Hamas and Hizballah arms purchasing missions worked out of Benghazi and Tripoli for seven months, buying hardware from rebel militias for hard cash. After Tripoli fell in late August, they split up between the two cities and are still snapping up black market arms sold by NTC militias. source – DEBKA
Massive Quake Strikes Turkey As It Receives Freed Palestinian Terrorists From Schalit Trade
Oct 23rd
‘We can hear the screams’: 1,000 feared dead in Turkish earthquake as scores of buildings collapse
Up to 1,000 people were feared dead today after a powerful earthquake hit Turkey. The 7.2-magnitude tremor devastated parts of Van province in the east of the country, collapsing dozens of buildings into piles of twisted steel and chunks of concrete.
Where did the terrorists freed in the Schalit go? Turkey. Ka-BOOM!
Desperate survivors dug into the rubble with their bare hands, trying to rescue the trapped and injured. The worst hit was Ercis, a town of 75,000 close to the Iranian border in one of Turkey’s most earthquake-prone zones. Twenty-five to 30 buildings collapsed including a dormitory.
At least 85 have been killed and 150 injured, but scientists estimated that up to 1,000 people could be dead, due to low housing standards in the area and the size of the quake.
Hospital staff in Ercis have been forced to treat injured people in the garden as the buildings were badly damaged.
Nurse Eda Ekizoglu told CNN: ‘The hospital has been badly damaged, so we can’t operate inside,
‘We’re giving care in the hospital garden and at a nearby building with a generator.
‘There should be more than 100 dead bodies left next to the hospital. We left them there because it’s dark and we didn’t want to step on bodies.’
An eight-storey building with shops underneath was flattened. Residents sobbed outside the ruins, hoping that missing relatives would be rescued.
CNN-Turk television showed one young man crying: ‘My wife and child are inside! My 4-month-old baby is inside!’ source – Daily Mail UK
Gilad Schalit Returned Home, Netanyahu Warns Palestinian Terrorists
Oct 18th
Reunion is bittersweet as over 1,000 terrorists also go home
TEL NOF AIR BASE, Israel (AP) – Israel’s prime minister has warned the Palestinian militants freed in a prisoner swap that they will be punished if they return to violence.
In this image from Egypt TV Tuesday Oct 18 2011 Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit is seen at an undisclosed location in the Gaza- Egypt border area accompanied by Hamas guards as he is moved in to Egypt from captivity in Gaza beginning an elaborate prisoner swap deal in which hundreds of Palestinian inmates are to be freed in return for the captured tank crewman. (AP Photo/ Egypt TV)
Netanyahu issued the warning after greeting the lone Israeli soldier freed in the swap, in which Israel is releasing more than 1,000 prisoners. Some 300 of them had been serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis.
Netanyahu said he understood the pain of Israeli families who have lost relatives in Palestinian violence.
He said, “We will continue to fight terror and every released terrorist who returns to terror will be held accountable.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
TEL NOF AIR BASE, Israel (AP) – Freed Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit has arrived at an air base in central Israel for an eagerly awaited reunion with his family.
Schalit landed at Tel Nof air base on board a military helicopter.
His parents, Noam and Aviva, have led an emotional campaign to win their son’s release for the past five years. They have led nationwide marches and set up a protest tent outside the official residence of the prime minister.
Earlier Tuesday, Hamas militants in Gaza freed Schalit in a swap for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Ahead of the reunion, Schalit switched out of civilian clothes given to him by Hamas and into an Israeli military uniform. source – My Way
President Abbas Declares ‘Palestinian Spring’
Sep 25th
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Thousands of Palestinians cheering and waving flags gave President Mahmoud Abbas a hero’s welcome in the West Bank Sunday, as he told them triumphantly a “Palestinian Spring” had been born following his historic speech to the U.N. last week.
Abbas’ popularity has skyrocketed since he asked the U.N. on Friday to recognize Palestinian independence, defying appeals from Israel and the United States to return to peace talks. His request has pushed the region into uncharted waters, and left the international community scrambling over how to respond.
Thousands of people crowded Abbas’ West Bank headquarters in the city of Ramallah to get a glimpse of the 76-year-old president upon his return from New York. Abbas was uncharacteristically animated, shaking his hands and waving to the audience.
Abbas compared his campaign to the Arab Spring, the mass demonstrations sweeping the Arab world in hopes of freedom, saying that an independent Palestinian state is inevitable.
“We have told the world that there is the Arab Spring, but the Palestinian Spring is here,” he said. “A popular spring, a populist spring, a spring of peaceful struggle that will reach its goal.”
He warned that the Palestinians face a “long path” ahead. “There are those who would put out obstacles … but with your presence they will fall and we will reach our end.”
The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. source – Yahoo News
Israel Boosts West Bank Forces Ahead Of UN Vote
Sep 16th
Handwriting on the wall
“And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.” Daniel 5:24
Israel has boosted its army presence in the West Bank ahead of a Palestinian recourse to the UN amid fears they may resort to the International Criminal Court over Jewish settlements,reports said on Friday.
Public radio reported the build-up and the daily Yediot Aharonot said three battalions of reservists — some 1,500 personnel — have been mobilised and units already in the occupied territory have been reinforced.
The move comes ahead of expected Palestinian demonstrations as their statehood bid looms at the United Nations on September 23, public radio said.
General Avi Mizrahi, the commander of central Israel which includes the West Bank, has issued strict orders to the military to act with restraint and avoid bloodshed if trouble erupts, Yediot Aharonot said.
It said troops in the Palestinian territory have been armed with anti-riot equipment including tear gas to enable them to control any protests without having to resort to live ammunition.
The military is also reported to have boosted its presence around Jewish settlements in the West Bank, both to protect them and to prevent attacks on Palestinians by extremist settlers.
Officials said one Palestinian and an Israeli settler were wounded on Friday in clashes in the village of Kusra in the northern West Bank.
Around a dozen settlers tried to enter Kusra but were stopped by residents who feared they were about to be attacked and began beating them, Palestinian officials said.
One settler pulled out a pistol and shot a Palestinian in the leg.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the clash happened in a disputed area outside Kusra between residents and people from the nearby settlement of Esh Hakodesh.
She said the wounded Israeli had been stabbed and confirmed a Palestinian had been shot. source – Breitbart
Israel’s Policy Of Military Restraint Is Working Against Them As Terror Attacks Rise
Aug 30th
As the September deadline approaches, terror attacks rise in Israel
In the 10 days after Palestinian raiders killed eight Israelis on the Eilat highway on Aug. 18, Israel has suffered five terrorist attacks, the latest in Tel Aviv Sunday night which targeted a big teenagers’ back-to- school party. Five of the eight people injured were police officers and the club’s security guard. Israeli failure to respond commensurately to the Eilat Highway attack, the first in the series, blew another big hole in Israel’s military deterrence.
The policy of military restraint pursued by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was shown by the Tel Aviv attack by a Palestinian jihadi yelling Allah Akhbar to have crossed a dangerous red line: Civilians are being left in harm’s way to serve diplomatic interests such as not further straining relations with the new rulers in Cairo. Israel received due warning ahead of the Eilat highway attack, for which15-20 gunmen from Gaza crossed into Israel from Egyptian Sinai. But no preventive action was taken. Eight Israelis paid with their lives for this restraint and another 33 were inured.
Since then, Israel has received a specific warning that another attack is building up fast: A Jihad Islami team has departed the Gaza Strip for Sinai where it has set up another multiple attack from the Egyptian border on southern Israel.
debkafile’s military sources say this warning is a red herring. The Iranian-sponsored coordinated strike is planned to be more elaborate than the first, consisting on a raid on a southern Israeli highway near the Egyptian border and another assaulting civilian locations abutting the Gaza Strip, already battered year after year by Palestinian missiles.
Palestinian Jihad Islami, which declared a missile ceasefire last Thursday, Aug. 25 – to fend off a damaging Israeli reprisal for the first Palestinian attack and the 150 missiles fired into Israel since then – saw Israel was sitting on its hands and was encouraged to go for more outrages.
debkafile’s military sources report that Israel sent notice of this threat to Cairo last week in the expectation of Egyptian action to thwart the attack before it reached the Israeli border. However, nothing was done and as the peril advanced, Jerusalem let the public know Monday, Aug. 29, that Egypt was in the picture in the hope of prodding its rulers into action.
But failing military action, sovereign Israel is shrinking back under a terrorist threat. Sunday night, dire security concerns closed two national highways, 12 and 10, to traffic, suspending the road links between northern Israel and the South – causing major disruptions in the entire affective region. Even contractors on a rush job to finish the defensive wall going up along the 200-kilometer Egyptian border were told to wait for adequate security measures.
Since last week, Jerusalem has been on high terror alert level. Various signs of preparation for several attacks in the capital were spotted by security forces at sensitive locations.
Since the onset of the latest Palestinian terrorist-cum-missile offensive, popular pressure on the government has increasingly demanded seriously punitive action for cutting the offensive short and providing a deterrent for the future. After the Eilat Highway attack, the prime minister publicly pledged due punishment for the perpetrators. Now, his spokesmen are explaining that Israel needs to act with restraint, “using its brain not its gut,” because of the approaching Palestinian application for UN recognition on Sept. 20 – which is anyway a lost battle for Israel because of the Palestinians’ automatic majority – and the incendiary climate engendered by the Arab revolts in the lands around Israel.
Such statements are worse than counter-productive; they are harmful.
Palestinian extremists treat them as open invitations to batter Israel without fear of IDF retaliation. The belief in Jerusalem that if Israel let terror goes unpunished – or even foiled – this will guarantee Israel a smooth, bloodless ride past Sept. 20 is no more than a foolish illusion. Faced with an unthreatening Israel, Palestinian terrorists have never felt safer to do their worst. The level of violence will rise rather than decline around that date.
A spineless Israeli government is thus leading the country day by day down a slippery slope to the next Palestinian uprising (Intifada).
It is no coincidence that these circumstances are strongly reminiscent of the situation which produced the suicide-powered Palestinian uprising of 2000, because it happened during Ehud Barak’s brief stint as prime minister. Then too, he instructed Israeli soldiers not to shoot straight at Palestinian positions but dip their guns and aim at the foreground. This of course did not put Yasser Arafat off and went right ahead to blow up buses, markets and cafes across Israel’s cities, a hellish experience lasting two years.
Barak did not last long as prime minister; popular frustration with his passivity was expressed in a vote for his ouster from power.
But he has not changed.
This Monday, shortly before a Palestinian from Nablus set about him among Israelis with a knife after running them down in a stolen cab, a “senior defensive official” stated in a briefing to foreign correspondents that Israel would not be able to halt Iran’s quest for atomic weapons by a single attack.
Declining to be identified, he said: “We’re not talking about Iraq or Syria where one strike would derail a program” – a reference to Israel’s 1981 air strikes that destroyed Iraq’s nuclear reactor and Syria’s plutonic plant in 2007.
He concluded that the US stood a better chance than Israel of forcing Iran to change its mind about a nuclear weapon. “With all respect to Israel – the greatest fear of the [Iranian] regime is the USA.”
The admission that the Iranians fear American military strength – but not Israel’s – is tantamount to a formal acknowledgement that Israel has lost its military deterrence.
Binyamin Netanyahu and his right-of-center Likud have much to answer for.
A pledge to eradicate Iran’s military nuclear program topped their election platform two and a half years ago. Since forming a broad coalition government in 2009, he has not lifted a finger to promote that objective or stem Iranian expansion across the Middle East and its boosts in arms and funding for Israel’s terrorist enemies.
Netanyahu seems to be satisfied with passing the buck to America, knowing perfectly well that President Barack Obama has no intention of picking it up. The Netanyahu-Barack duo have opted for the same passive approach to Palestinian terror – as though that too is someone else’s business. source – DEBKA
