April 22, 2005
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
An internal Israeli defense report obtained by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin shows Palestinian violence and terrorist attacks up 300 percent in the last 10 days.
The report is a concentrated collection of intelligence submitted by the Israeli Defense Forces, the Internal Security Service, Shabak and Israel's national police. It highlights the disturbing increase in the number of terrorist incidents and – even more alarming – information on Palestinian plans to resume open hostilities in what would be the "third intifada," or major uprising.
Parts of the report, obtained by the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND's founder, show major developments in the West Bank where Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, is trying half-heartedly to impose law and order. Those responsible for the report pointed to the fact certain areas handed over to the Palestinians since the beginning of the cease-fire two months ago are now hubs of criminal and terrorist activity, including weapons' smuggling and distribution.
The main location for such activity is the city of Jericho near the Dead Sea, west of the Jordan River, some 30 kilometers east of Jerusalem and 20 kilometers from the Palestinian headquarters in Ramallah.
G2 Bulletin has learned from a reliable intelligence source in Tel Aviv that Jericho is now the place where weapons and ammunition are smuggled into Palestinian-ruled areas from the kingdom of Jordan. Parts of the report elaborate on the number of small arms smuggled or distributed by newly established terror group offices in Jericho.
More alarming than the accumulation of small arms is the fact, as all Israeli intelligence branches now believe, at least 10 anti-tank missiles and five anti-aircraft missiles are among the weapon systems sent from the larger Jericho area to Ramallah, the unofficial capital of the Palestinian Authority, and to the largest Palestinian urban center of Nablus north of Ramallah. Israel's Chief of Staff Lt. General Moshe "Buggi" Yaalon went to Jordan for a brief visit. He met with King Abdallah II and with Jordanian military to discuss the new situation in Jericho and to secure Jordanian active intelligence support as well as action to beef up Jordan's military positions on the east bank of the Jordan River.
The report also outlines developments and trends in the Gaza Strip where the IDF on several occasions intercepted weapons smugglers and where militants, mainly affiliated with the Islamic Movement Hamas, the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, openly carry or display weapons. These include Qassem short-range rockets and a larger than usual number of Russian-made sniper rifles. Some of the attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip included sniper fire directed from within heavily populated neighborhoods. Two Israelis were seriously injured in these types of attacks. A roadside bomb injured three Israeli soldiers on patrol, and other bombs were discovered and dismantled.
Army officers angrily claim instructions coming all the way from the prime minister's office in Jerusalem have forced them to hold their fire unless directly attacked.
"We see them preparing for the next round and have great difficulties in convincing political decision makers to allow us to act," said an officer with the Israeli border police, a para-military unit of the national police. A member of the "Yehidat Ha'Gidonim," the Gideons, the operational arm of the General Security Service, said counter-terror activities were grounded almost to a halt, "unless there is direct proof of an immediate plan to execute a terror attack on an Israeli target."
One such case was a plan by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to assassinate Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas orthodox party and a known critic of the government. In this instance, the Gideons arrested 22-year-old Moussa Mohammed Darwesh from Issawiyah in the Jerusalem municipal district. He worked in the vitamin cafeteria at the Hebrew University campus. As a resident of a Jerusalem neighborhood, he enjoyed freedom of movement all over Israel. A reliable source told G2 Bulletin other members of the terror cell were arrested and that attempts to have the Palestinian Authority arrest additional suspects were in vain.
The report paints in gloomy colors the security situation within the Palestinian Authority and shows Palestinian leader Abbas as incapable of restraining the militants. What was brushed aside two months ago as mere labor pains of the new Abbas administration is now a haunting nightmare. It is now obvious the defiance of anti-peace Palestinians goes way beyond the age-old consensus of the anti-Israeli agenda. Groups of extremists have attacked Palestinian government installations and officials, openly demanding jobs and funds. Some claim they are joining an Abbas program of weapons-for-jobs, an initiative to disarm many by promising lucrative positions in return for weapons.
A police intelligence officer told G2 Bulletin: "The plan is nothing but a joke since every militant has more than one weapon. They want a lucrative job as they continue to maintain their anti-Abu Mazen, anti-U.S. and anti-Road Map political orientation."
The most dangerous group in the West Bank, comparable to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, is the Al-Akqsa Martyrs Brigade, the most militant of all Fatah factions and groups openly challenging the authority of Abu Mazen. Some of the directives of the brigade come from jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti. However, while Barghouti and others are in jail, local commanders such as Zakariye Zubeydi, the Martyrs Brigade gang leader in the northwest city of Jenin, control the scene. He is a staunch supporter of Palestinian leader Abu Abbas, who is the de facto leader of the Fatah movement and an open rival of Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.
The Zubeydi group, gangs of Hamas operatives and other militants within the framework of the so-called Resistance Committee are, for all practical purposes, involved in a terror campaign against other Palestinians. To achieve tactical goals, the Resistance Committee announces the emergence of new groups such as the Salahadin Companies, named after Saladin the Muslim leader who in 1187 defeated the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.
There are no signs the trend of increasing violent activities, growing by hundreds of percents almost weekly, will end soon. As the situation in all urban Palestinian centers in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is deteriorating, Israeli military analysts want the government and the public to be very cautious in their expectations. The planned withdrawal of settlements in the summer is meant to open a new era of peaceful co-existence. But a grim analysis voiced by Israel's No. 1 soldier, Yaalon, contains a warning that the day after, the Palestinians will open a new intifada.
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