The terrorist chase

On Tues March 21, a high speed chase occurred on the main highway (Route 1)
between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A white van drove at high speed through two
temporary checkpoints, set up by the IDF because of a high security threat of
a suicide bombing. Both a helicopter and police cars gave chase and the van
was stopped about halfway on the way to Tel Aviv, near where the new
railroad bridge is being built.
The police were surprised to find ten Palestinians in the van, and a bag
containing an explosive of 7 kg, enough to cause significant damage. They
arrested and stripped all of the occupants and identified the one who was
supposed to blow himself up in Tel Aviv. He is a 20 year old member of
Islamic Jihad from the village of Yamoun near Nablus on the West Bank.
Last week an attempt by the Border Police to capture a terrorist in Yamoun
failed. There was an exchange of gunfire, but the terrorist being sought
escaped, and unfortunately a 10 year old girl was killed in the crossfire. An
enquiry is proceeding into her death. Although she may have been killed by
Palestinian gunfire, which is notoriously inaccurate, supposedly this planned
suicide attack was an attempt at revenge.
This incident shows that Islamic Jihad is trying very hard to carry out a
bombing before the election, hence the high threat level. Since we were in
Jerusalem that day we missed the terrible hold-up that took hours to clear.
Noone ever mentions the inconvenience to Israelis of these checkpoints forced
on us by the necessity to check for Palestinian terrorists. In this case the
checkpoints worked and the bomber was caught before he could detonate
himself in a crowd. Hopefully some useful information was also gathered.
On Wednesday, another attack was foiled when an IDF force captured a terrorist
and two accomplices in Ramallah. This upsurge of terrorist activity is related
to a payment of m$1.8 from Iran to the West Bank to support actions to
disrupt the Israeli elections. Although the West Bank is officially closed,
nevertheless some people are allowed in, and there are gaps in the Jerusalem
fence that are not fully policed.
On Thursday, another gang of three terrorists were detected near the Gaza
border fence and were hit with tank and aerial rockets. They were killed
and their explosive of 50 kg (enough to destroy a tank) was detonated. We
can expect further daily attempts at least until the election next Tuesday.
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For previous messages see: www.commentfromisraelblog.blogspot.com