Further attacks

Here are some of the recent attempts that the terrorist groups are still making:
- A tunnel was discovered near the Erez crossing from Gaza Saturday morning,
that was intended to be used for infiltration into the Negev. It was the first
discovered since the withdrawal from Gaza. Luckily it was spotted by an IDF
patrol. The tunnel was complete, but apparently had not yet been used to
infiltrate a terrorist.
- Two Palestinians were detected swimming from Egypt to Gaza towing floatable
bags full of arms. An Israeli patrol boat went to intercept them and since they
were near the shore was fired on by gunmen waiting for them. In the ensuing
firefight one of the swimmers was killed and the other disappeared.
- A man aged 44 waiting at the Kalandia checkpoint near Ramallah last Thursday
suddenly drew a long knife and managed to slit the throat of a soldier, Nir
Kahane, before he was shot. Unfortunately the soldier died and was buried on
Friday. Another attempt was foiled today.
- A 17 year old youth was arrested at a checkpoint into Israel from Bethlehem on
Friday carrying two pipe bombs that were primed to go off. He said that he was to
deliver them to a man on the other side of the checkpoint. He said he did it
because he hates Jews. Another youth was captured today carrying pipe bombs.
- A Palestinian man was arrested in the West Bank after it was discovered that he
had a lot of money, that was apparently paid to him by Hizbollah to organize
attacks against Israelis with his 7-man al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade cell who are also
members of the PA police force.
- Rockets are still being fired into the Negev from Gaza. Although Pres. Abbas
has criticized these acts as being "against the interests of the Palestinian
people," he has done nothing to actually stop them. In contrast, there is an
active campaign against drug dealing, crime, smuggling and lawlessness going on
in the PA by the armed police. They are disarming anyone seen carrying guns in
the streets.Abbas admits that "scenes of lawlessness are very visible" in Gaza,
but so far the campaign has had little effect.
Under these circumstances Israel has announced that it will not allow convoys
to transfer people and goods between Gaza and the West Bank through Israeli
territory. This was announced after the terrorist bombing in Netanya last
week that killed 5 and injured 30. A US spokesman who was also visiting the
area warned the PA that they must actively stop these attacks.
There are conflicting reports about whether or not Hamas will honor the hudna
(calming) which is due to end at the end of December and/or renew it.
Spokesmen in Gaza have said they will keep the hudna, but the Head of Hamas in Damascus,Kaled Mashaal, announced the opposite. He said that while Israeli
attacks occur against Hamas operatives there can be no hudna. Meanwhile Islamic Jihad has never agreed to any kind of hudna or calming and have continued attacks. A few days ago in a reprisal on IJ in Nablus the IDF nabbed 14 members and a youth was killed when he fired on the troops. So the terrorist war continues unabated here.
Meanwhile, both Egypt and people in Bethlehem are bracing themselves for
possible attacks by al Qaeda. The IDF announced that it is suspending
movements of its boats in the Suez Canal area, because of possible attacks, and Egypt put its forces along the Canal on alert. In Bethlehem, a rumor has been circulating that Zarqawi, head of al Qaeda in Iraq, is now targeting Bethlehem,
and people are afraid to go out on the streets. No-one knows if this is a real threat or merely a rumor. It is believed that al Qaeda as well as Hamas and Fatah operatives have been infiltrated into the PA through the Rafah crossing from Egypt, while Palestinian customs have refused to keep their agreement with Israel to
allow real-time monitoring of the passengers in transit.