While world attention is focused on
Sharon’s personal fate, lawlessness and total chaos continue to rage
in the Gaza Strip
Following a series of high-profile kidnappings, events
culminated last Wednesday when Incited militants rampaged on the
Egyptian border at Rafah, killing two Egyptian soldiers and wounding
25 more. The clashes erupted when rioting crowds bulldozed their way
over the border wall seizing the international crossing point, which
set off a human avalanche into Egyptian controlled territory in Sinai.
Watching the scene of utter chaos was a large crowd of Gazans, but
Palestinian Authority security official personnel were conspicuous by
their absence. In fact, since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip,
four months ago, militants have rampaged through Gaza City
underscoring the growing lawlessness in Palestinian towns representing
the most brazen challenge to the authority of Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas.
Thus it seems that for all purposes, the Palestine National Authority
(PNA) has virtually lost all control over the lawless Gaza Strip,
creating ideal conditions for global terrorist organisations, foremost
al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah to set up a safe base in the
void.
According to Israeli intelligence, not only is the omnipresent al-Qaeda
already at work in Gaza, but is setting up a forward base of
operations, in order to plan and execute strikes not only against
Israel, but also also planning attacks against other pro-American
Middle Eastern countries from there. This could signal an alliance
with local Islamic fundamentalist groups and Iran-backed Hezbollah, as
al Qaeda assumes a larger role in destabilizing the region. Analysts
anticipate, that Israel cannot afford such a threat building on its
threshold and sometime during 2006, the IDF will find itself once
again forced to “clean-out” the Gaza strip of both the Palestinian and
al Qaeda terrorist bases.
Signs that al Qaeda has planned this development have been monitored
by Israeli intelligence for some time, as al Qaeda. In a videotape
aired on Friday by al Jazeera TV, Al Qaeda’s deputy chief
Ayman al-Zawahiri said “You Americans have been defeated in
Iraq and in Afghanistan and will soon ( the Zionists) will be defeated
in Palestine.”
As for Iran’s growing involvement, Shin Bet officials noted that a
significant rise was marked in 2005 in Iranian intelligence attempts
to recruit Israeli citizens as agents. It was revealed last week, that
security sources had recently dealt with Arab Israelis suspected of
ties with Iranian intelligence, some of whom served in positions that
granted them access to classified information and sites. Perhaps the
most conspicuous was Jirias Jirias, 57, former head of the
Fasuta Local Council in the Upper Galilee suspected of spying on
Israel for Iranian Intelligence. Having joined a left wing party he
was instructed by Iranian agents in Cyprus to become elected as
Knesset member in the next elections.
Meanwhile Egyptian forces are extremely busy in desperate effort,
hunting al Qaeda terror cells, bunkered in the Jebel Hillal mountains
of central Sinai, where according to Israeli intelligence they had
established their jump-off base for the entrance into Gaza. Only days
after General Shukri’s delegation arrived in Gaza, setting up shop to
ensure an orderly take after the Israelis left, tragedy struck in
Sinai, when a huge landmine exploded under the vehicle in which Major
General Mahmoud Adel and Colonel Omar Abdel-Moneim, were
killed in action, commanding the 4000 strong security force, scouring
the Sinai desert, hunting for the men involved in the 23 July Sharm-al-Sheikh
bombings. After combat engineers were called in to secure the winding
mountain tracks leading up to the rugged, cave pocked, 900 meter high
mountain range, a new commander, assistant interior minister General.
Mohammed Sharawi took over and the hunt for the culprits
resumed. However, reports indicate that al Qaeda’s stronghold is there
to stay and will inevitably cause the local authorities further
anguish, which could even deteriorate when the new Gaza base takes
shape.
General Ze'evi-Farkash IDF chief of military intelligence, told
the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies last week that al-Qaeda
terrorists had entered Gaza from Egypt following Israel's withdrawal,
though he refused to emphasize their presence in the Sinai.
(According to the Egypt-Israel 1979 peace agreement leaves Sinai as a
demilitarized zone and any military operations by Egyptian forces
there would need a “blind eye” from Israel. ) But the general did
mention was that “during the ten days after the withdrawal,
Palestinian terrorist groups brought in 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles,
300 rocket-propelled grenades, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition and an
undetermined number of anti-tank rockets and surface-to-air missiles
from al Qaeda depots in Sinai.” In addition, Shin Beit chief
Yuval Diskin warns Palestinians now possess Russian BM-21Grad
missiles ranging out to about 30km which could attain strategic
proportions if fired at sensitive objectives in Ashkelon and Ashdod
port, all coming within range.
That al Qaeda has already opened a new front with Israel became
evident last month, when its Islamic website stated that it has
launched 10 Katyusha missiles at Israel from south Lebanon. Although
at the time the statement could not be authenticated, Israeli
intelligence experts are taking this claim very seriously.
Israel has always been a target of fierce rhetorical attack by
Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, but until now words had not been
matched by deeds. For some time, Israeli officials have noted that
groups identifying with al-Qaeda - or the global jihad - are
determined to acquire operational footholds close to Israel's borders.
Probably, the most dramatic sign of this development was the November
9 suicide bombing of three Jordanian hotels in Amman by a group
calling itself "al-Qaeda Mesopotamia" – actually, the
organization led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian
insurgency leader fighting the US in Iraq. Islamic Web sites
immediately announced: "After the attack in the heart of Jordan, it
will soon be possible to reach Jewish targets in Israel”.
On August 19, another al-Qaeda grouplet going by the name the
Abdallah Azzam Battalions fired three Katyusha rockets from Aqaba
and one of the missiles landed near Eilat airport, while others
narrowly missed American military cargo ships lying offshore.
That al-Qaeda is attempting to infiltrate Israel and establish terror
cells in the country, unsuccessfully so far, was revealed by Defence
Minister Shaul Mofaz last Friday while touring the southern town of
Ashkelon: "Al-Qaeda attempted to act in Israel in recent years,
without success," Mofaz said. "The organization is attempting
to set up cells deep into the area, but we are monitoring it and
undertaking all the intelligence and operational steps to prevent
terror."
David Keyes, an expert on terrorism at the Jerusalem Center for
Public Affairs recently published a paper, entitled “Al-Qaeda
Infiltration of Gaza: A Post-Disengagement Assessment” published
by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
According to Keyes, al-Qaeda operatives have been spotted in Gaza for
some time. Already back in 2003, two british al-Qaeda operatives were
recruited into Hamas in order to execute the notorious Mike’s Place
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. More recently, according to the
Palestinian Authority, a new al-Qaeda group called “Jundallah”
(Allah’s Brigades) has formed in Gaza. In May 2005, this group
executed its first attack against Israelis. Al-Qaeda’s presence in
Gaza has also been confirmed by one of Hamas’ leading spokesmen,
Mahmoud az-Zahar. Lastly, leaflets in Khan Yunis have been
distributed by al-Qaeda’s “Palestine Branch.”
In the wake of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, "what we are recently
identifying is the entrance of various so-called vanguard, precursor
elements — Al Qaeda operatives without a doubt — who are coming with a
long-term plan to establish an infrastructure there," said Israel's
former military chief of staff, retired General Moshe Ya'alon,
in an interview before he left his post.
As if to emphasise this threat, Israel television revealed Monday,
December 2, that the Be'er Sheva District Court charged a member of a
breakaway band of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade with planning
"strategic" attacks in Israel, including simultaneous suicide bombings
in various cities, as well as an attack on the nuclear reactor in
Dimona! Wether such a scheme could succeed is highly questionable, but
bearing in mind al Qaeda professional record in mega-terrorism, it
could well signal a new era in planned terror attacks inside Israel.
Israeli intelligence reports warn that there is growing
dissatisfaction among Palestinians that even Hamas and other terrorist
factions are not “delivering” results through their activities and
this is paving the way for al Qaeda and Hezbollah to step into the
void, which was sofar closed to them in Palestine.
Failure of the present Qassam missiles, might well encourage al Qaeda
experts to enhance the lethality of warheads, by using weapon grade
explosives or even chemical ingredients, which would inevitably
provoke fierce Israeli retaliation- a strategic aim through which the
Islamic fundamentalists thrive to derail any democratic trend, or
peace initiative, still feasible between Israel and the Palestinian
authority.
"The battle for Palestine, as Zarqawi sees it, is the ultimate one,"
said Dr Yoram Kahati, a former intelligence officer and now a
research fellow at the International Policy Institute for
Counter-Terrorism of the Israel Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya |
