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A Journal for Western Man |
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Iran-Backed Palestinian Terror Group Has Fired 68 Rockets Into Israel Since Cease-Fire Began The Israel Project Issue LXXXIV- December 29, 2006
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Continual Qassam rocket attacks
against Israel by Palestinian terror groups in
Gaza are threatening to undermine a
month-long cease-fire during which Israel has
refrained from undertaking military actions to stop
the unprovoked strikes.
The cease-fire agreement went into
effect on Nov. 26. [1] Since
then, Gaza-based terrorists have fired more than 68
Qassams, 53 of which fell inside Israel.
[2]
"It is a real tragedy that Israel
has once again been forced to defend itself from
rocket attacks," said
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of
The Israel Project. "This
is especially true since Israel gave up all of
Gaza more than a year ago in the hopes of a
better future for both sides. Israel has complained
time and again about these attacks and is working
with the international community, but the attacks
continue. All Israel wants is for its citizens to be
able to live in peace."
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), one
of several Iran-backed terrorist
groups operating inside
Gaza, has claimed responsibility for much of
the Qassam fire that has breached the cease-fire in
the last month. One of the Qassams landed in the
southern Israeli town of Sderot on Dec. 26,
seriously wounding two teenage boys.
In response to that incident, the
office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
released a statement on Dec. 27 that read: "A
directive has been given to take pin-point action
against the rocket-launching squads. In parallel,
Israel will continue to preserve the cease-fire and
will act vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority in
order for them to take immediate action to stop the
shooting of Qassams." [3]
Abu Ahmed, a PIJ spokesman, confirmed
that the group was deliberately launching Qassams in
an attempt to jeopardize the fragile cease-fire by
provoking a response by the Israel Defense Forces.[4]
The
United States, the European Union, and the
Australian and Canadian governments officially
designate PIJ as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Iran
provides an estimated $2 million in state-sponsored
funding to PIJ annually. [5]
The
Al-Quds Brigades, the violent military wing
of PIJ has claimed responsibility for dozens of
Qassam rockets launched into Israel in recent
months. In addition to rocket attacks, PIJ planned
and carried out the April
17, 2006 suicide bombing in
Tel Aviv that left 12 civilians dead and more
than 60 wounded near the city's old downtown bus
station.
Militants affiliated with Hezbollah
and other factional Palestinian terrorist groups
receive training, financial support and weapons from
Syria and
Iran and even receive thousands of dollars in
reward money for each attack, according to an
Israeli Security Agency source. [8]
"Sometimes they are paid before the
attack and sometimes they submit a bill to
Lebanon afterward and the money gets
transferred a short while later," according to the
source. [9]
Security officials also said
Hezbollah is directly involved in smuggling
thousands of dollars into
Gaza to pay for the attacks. Militants are
paid based on the number of Israelis they kill or
injure by Qassams they fire into Israel. [10]
Financial support for these terrorist
attacks against Israel is chiefly awarded by
Iran.
Regarding PIJ's Qassam attacks
against Israeli civilians, Abu Ahmed said, "Our
firing is not coincidental. The rocket-firing cells
are aiming at targets and strategic facilities on
which, or next to which, the rockets land." [11]
Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also
working to create a rocket with a longer range to
use against Israel. "We are in the advanced stages
of working on a rocket with a range of 22 km (13.5
mi.)," Abu Ahmed said.[12]
As a result, the IDF is considering
expanding the current security zone around the
Gaza Strip. In order to protect Israeli
citizens in the communities surrounding
Gaza, Israel's Home Front Command wants to
widen the zone an additional 3 km (1.9 mi.), which
would total 20 km (12.4 mi.). Almost 50,000 Israelis
live within a 7 km (4.3 mi.) perimeter of
Gaza, but the newly expanded zone, once
completed, will help protect the 162,000 civilians
who would be in range of the extended Qassam fire. [13]
Hamas' Izzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades as
well as the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an offshoot
of Fatah, also have been responsible for firing
Qassam rockets from
Gaza into Israel throughout the month-long
cease-fire. An estimated 1,300 Qassam rockets have been launched by Palestinian militants from Gaza since Israel evacuated all of its citizens, including soldiers and even its dead, from the Gaza Strip in August 2005. Israel took that dramatic step for the purpose of helping to launch an independent Palestinian state. Instead, almost immediately afterwards, Palestinian terrorist groups began using Gaza to stockpile weapons, fire rockets into Israel and even set up terrorist training camps. [14] The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has done nothing to stop the attacks, which include intentionally targeting innocent Israeli civilians.
Under the control of the Hamas
government, Palestinians are now capable of
launching Qassam rockets into the coastal town of
Ashkelon, which lies 13 km (8 mi.) from northern
Gaza. Qassams usually can travel 3 -10 km
(1.8 - 6 mi.), but Hamas's green light for continued
terror against Israel has resulted in the creation
of a new double-engine Qassam rocket by the military
wing of Hamas and the build-up of Grad-style
Katyusha rockets that can reach targets within 18-30
km (11-19 mi.). [15]
On Dec. 23, Israeli Prime Minister
Olmert hosted his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud
Abbas at his home in west Jerusalem. During the
meeting, the two leaders agreed to cooperate on a
number of issues, primarily taking concrete steps to
resume the peace process. [16]
Following the discussion at Olmert's
residence, Olmert announced that he would unfreeze
$100 million dollars in Palestinian tax revenues and
find a way to deliver the aid so that it would
directly reach the Palestinian people rather than
falling into the hands of the Hamas-led government. [17]
Said Miri Eisin, an Israeli
government spokeswoman, "The money itself will not
be transferred to the Hamas-led government and right
now we are looking for the right way to be able to
transfer the money ... for different humanitarian
issues." [18]
Also, the Israeli prime minister
pledged to ease travel and security restrictions in
the
West Bank and
Gaza. [19]
In response to the number of Qassams
that have been launched during the cease-fire,
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations (U.N.) has
been directed to file a motion with the president of
the U.N. Security Council regarding Palestinian
violations of the agreement. [20]
Those violations include eight
Qassams launched on Dec. 26 from
Gaza into Israel and a mortar that landed
near an IDF base. One of the Qassams landed in
Ashkelon, near a strategic installation. [21]
During Dec. 18-26, militants in
Gaza fired 31 Qassams; of those, 17 landed in
Israel.
A total of 10 civilians have died as
a result of Qassam and mortar fire launched from the
Gaza Strip into Israel, beyond the 1967
border. Before Israel carried out its disengagement
from
Gaza, an additional seven people were killed
by rockets and mortars in Jewish communities in
Gaza, including a foreign worker and two
Palestinians. [22] Background Information on Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also
referred to as Islamic Jihad (IJ), was founded in
1980 by Fathi Shiqaqi subsequent to his departure
from the Muslim Brotherhood. The specificity of this
group's title - Palestinian - is due to its
geographic location and its members' national
affiliation.
Islamic Jihad is the principal
establishment of which PIJ and a number of other
trans-national IJ terror cells worldwide are
supplemented. All IJ factions draw their tenets from
political and militant Islam. Since its inception,
PIJ has been a radical Islamic movement.
Currently, PIJ is led by Ramadan
Abdullah Shallah. PIJ is committed to the violent
destruction of Israel, which it views as one battle
in a larger worldwide holy war, pitting Islam
against all non-believers. PIJ violently opposes the
peace process and has conducted numerous suicide
bombings against Israeli civilians. The most recent
PIJ suicide bombing killed 11 Israelis in the heart
of
Tel Aviv on April 17, 2006. More than 200
civilians have been murdered in PIJ attacks, with
more than 1,000 civilians wounded. [23] PIJ's activities have been hampered in recent years by Israeli security services and an international crackdown on its funding sources. However, its refusal to abide by cease-fires and continued rejection of Israel's right to exist make PIJ a continued threat to a lasting peace in the region.
Sderot City
Council, Elena Biryukova
Alexander Rieman, Historian and
journalist
Ashkelon
Municipality
Anat
Weinstein-Berkowitz, Spokeswoman of the Ashkelon
Municipality
Gregory Mezin, Assistant to Ashkelon
Spokeswoman (Russian-speaker) Footnotes [1] "Israel, Palestinian
Authority declare cease-fire in
Gaza Strip," Israel Ministry of Foreign
Affairs press release, Nov. 26,2006, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2006/Israel+and+Palestinian+Authority+declare+cease-fire+in+Gaza+Strip+26-Nov-2006.htm
This TRA feature has been edited in accordance with TRA’s Statement of Policy. Click here to return to TRA's Issue LXXXIV Index. Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here. Read Mr. Stolyarov's new comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, at http://www.geocities.com/rational_argumentator/rc.html.
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