Terrorist Groups and Countries Grow Stronger Daily!
Month by Month, All the Terrorist Groups and Countries surrounding Israel in an Islamic Moon from
the Gaza Strip to southern Lebanon to Damascus to Baghdad to Tehran, are producing better trained armies, and increasing in quantity and quality of weaponry.
Hamas – Gaza Now – West Bank Soon – Then Israel – Then Caliphate
September 5, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Begin DEBKAfile Exclusive
DEBKAfile Exclusive: In a warning to Egypt, Israel states new situation leaves no option but military action to halt weapons flow to Gaza
September 4, 2007, 11:17 PM (GMT+02:00)
The warning was relayed to Cairo in the last 24 hours.
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that the message means Israeli armed forces are standing by for an order to recapture the Philadelphi route running along the southern Gaza border with Egypt.
The “new situation” does not refer to the upsurge of missile fire against Sderot, but the Egyptian security forces’ discovery Sun., Sept. 2, of 2.7 tons of explosives in the el-Gefgafa area 100 km southwest of the northern Sinai town of El Arish The cache was destined for the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami in the Gaza Strip. Our sources reveal that it also contained for the first time several dozen 240 mm Katyusha rockets of the type used by Hizballah to blast northern Israel last year.
From Gaza, these rockets can reach the southern approaches of Beersheba, not just the towns of Ashkelon and Netivot.
According to intelligence input, the rockets were intended for immediate use by the two Palestinian groups. This information convinced Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and chief of staff, Lt.
Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi that radical military action can no longer be delayed.
They decided that the Philadelphi route – evacuated by Israel two years ago with the rest of the Gaza Strip – would have to be retaken.
The timing will be determined at the security cabinet session Wed. Sept. 5.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add that Israel sent the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas an abbreviated version of the warning to Cairo.
The message to Egypt contained full operational details to emphasize that Israel has no wish to infringe on Egyptian sovereignty.
It left an opening for President Hosni Mubarak to avert the Israeli operation by ordering Egyptian security forces to take full control of the Egyptian-Gaza border sector.
Senior Israeli officials strongly doubt this will happen and expect it to be left to the IDF.
They are taking into account that all the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip will be led by Hamas and Jihad Islami in a violent response to Israel’s capture of Philadelphi by emptying their missile stocks on Israeli towns and villages in addition to Sderot.
Tuesday, Sept. 4, therefore, defense minister Barak extended the “special situation” decree governing the border region around Gaza by 48 hours.
This emergency decree grants the IDF’s Southern Command competence over civilian affairs, such as opening and closing schools, medical facilities and factories, the evacuate of civilians if warranted by the security situation, and authorizing war damages to institutions, businesses and private citizens.
At the end of 48 hours, the defense minister will request a further extension, possibly for
a month, from the government, followed by
the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.
Begin Article 2 from Jerusalem Post
80,000 illegal arms in terrorist hands in W. Bank
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST
September 4, 2007
Over 80,000 illegal weapons are believed to be in the hands of West Bank terrorists, according to the IDF’s latest assessments of the ongoing power struggle between Hamas and Fatah.
The weapons are mostly held in private homes or hidden in caches throughout Judea and Samaria.
According to the latest assessment, and contrary to earlier predictions, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post this week that Hamas was just as strong as Fatah in the West Bank and could pose a genuine threat to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces.
On Monday, the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that Fatah security forces had recently thwarted an attempted coup in the PA by Hamas.
Hamas had tried establishing a military force in the West Bank similar to its Executive Force in the Gaza Strip, which then planned to attack PA institutions and take over the government, according to the report. “They have weapons and explosives and, more importantly, they are highly motivated,” a senior defense official said.
According to the official, Hamas is currently in a “waiting period” and is trying to unite some of its splinter groups spread throughout the various West Bank cities, with terrorist hubs in the northern Samaria cities of Nablus and Jenin.
Earlier this year, the IDF foiled plans by Hamas to create a military force in the West Bank like the Executive Force that took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June.
According to a high-ranking IDF officer, Hamas tried uniting all of its factions across the West Bank but failed due to IDF preemptive action.
Since then, Hamas has focused on infiltrating its men into the ranks of PA security branches – the Palestinian Police and the National Security Force.
While Fatah is currently better organized and is in control of the official PA security forces in the West Bank, the Israeli defense establishment is concerned that when Hamas launches its coup attempt, Fatah force will collapse just like they did in Gaza.
There, Fatah had four times the men Hamas did, a defense official said.
For this reason, senior officials in the defense establishment have voiced opposition to a plan recently raised by the US security coordinator to the region Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton according to which Abbas needs an additional five battalions in the West Bank to counter the growing Hamas threat.
“It is not about manpower,” the official said, “but about motivating the Fatah forces to want to fight and defend the PA.”
The IDF Central Command believes that Abbas’s time is running out and that in the coming months Hamas will try to topple his government in the West Bank and attempt to take over the PA security branches and institutions. Last week, PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad announced that his government had closed down 103 welfare and charitable institutions connected to Hamas in an effort to impair the Islamist group’s financial capabilities.
The IDF has decided to take a number of steps to assist Abbas in motivating his men to fight if and when Hamas attempts its takeover.
According to defense officials, quality of life in the West Bank is an important factor in motivating PA security forces. As a result, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria is working on a number of ways to ease travel restrictions for PA security personnel.
Ahead of the upcoming hajj, which begins in mid-December, the civil administration is also examining ways to ease restrictions on Palestinians in general who want to travel abroad.
“The security forces need to feel that they have a reason to fight,” a defense official said. “They need to feel like they have a better life to look forward to. Otherwise, they will not pose a challenge to Hamas.”
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