SUFA CROSSING, Israel — Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip attacked an Israeli military post early Sunday, and the Israeli army said there were at least four Israeli casualties. The Popular Resistance Committees, which took responsibility for the attack, claimed they took the body of an Israeli killed in the attack. The army declined to comment on the claim. At least three militants were killed in the attack near the Kerem Shalom crossing, said the PRC, a small Palestinian militant group.
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“Our fighters infiltrated the Israeli army military location near so called Kerem Shalom,” said Abu Mujahid, another PRC spokesman. “They succeeded in blowing up several Israeli vehicles and clashed with Israeli soldiers. The battle is still going on. The number of fighters is bigger than any time. We have some martyrs who fell during the battle.”
He said full details of the operation would be released at a news conference later Sunday. The Kerem Shalom is used to bring cargo from Egypt into Gaza. Residents in the nearby communal farm said the Palestinian militants had infiltrated the military post through a tunnel dug under the border fence.
Abu Mujahid refused to confirm the report, but said: “It was a very complicated and well-studied operation. The details are going to shock the Zionists. There are many surprises that are going to be announced about planning and about the process and about the battle itself.” The operation, he said, was meant to avenge the death of the group's leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana, in an Israeli air strike earlier this month. Abu Samhadana was killed shortly after accepting a senior security position in the Hamas-led government.
The Popular Resistance Committees are not a new Palestinian terror group, but are composed primarily of members drawn from the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The rationale behind the formation of the PRC was to increase inter-terror co-operation and pool resources among the various and sundry terrorists entities currently operating in the West Bank, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Kind of like a regional mini-UN for terror masters.
Ynet News Online carries a somewhat different report:
A soldier and a tank commander, a second lieutenant, were killed Sunday morning, and another soldier was kidnapped after a Palestinian terror cell launched a combined attack on an Israel Defense Forces post in the southern Gaza Strip, near Kibbutz Kerem Shalom. Several soldiers were lightly to moderately injured in the incident and were taken by helicopter to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.
Following the incident, IDF forces entered areas in the southern Strip, where they are currently operating. Sources in the Strip reported that different elements, including some in Egypt and Jordan, are mediating between Israel and the Palestinian Authority through the Palestinian security organizations in a bid to find out what happened to the kidnapped soldier.
Sources in the government added that talks are being held in the European Union and in the United States in a bid to locate the missing soldier. Government officials refused to say whether the PA answered their calls. The IDF Spokesperson's Office said: "The terror attack was led by senior Hamas members in the Gaza Strip and was approved by the Hamas leadership. The IDF views the incident with severity and sees the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government responsible for the terror attack and for the fate of the missing soldier."
Defense Minister Amir Peretz reported to the ministers during Sunday's cabinet meeting that the attack in Kerem Shalom was mainly implemented by "hurling grenades at a tank." Peretz said that according to reports received by the defense establishment, the attack was carried out by Hamas.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his ministers that "Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and (Palestinian Prime Minister) Ismail Haniyeh are the people responsible for the attack."
IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz held a meeting Sunday morning to asses the situation in southern Gaza. The IDF views the incident as extremely severe, and according to estimates, the army will recommend the government to launch a large-scale operation in Gaza in wake of the incident. The well-planned attack on the post started, at 5:40 a.m., according to the IDF. Eight armed Palestinians infiltrated Israel through a tunnel leading from the Strip into Israel's territory, and split into three teams once they came out. One team approached an armored personnel carrier stationed at the place and fired at it. The APC was empty and no injuries were reported in that attack.
Another group simultaneously fired a missile and hurled grenades at a tank standing nearby. The missile hit the tank's rear, hurting the four soldiers that were inside. Two were immediately killed, a third soldier sustained injuries and the fourth was initially reported missing. As the incident developed, security officials came to believe that the soldier has been kidnapped.
During the attack, a third terrorist team moved in the direction of a desert patrol army post and engaged in a shooting battle with the soldiers. An explosive device was also activated at the place. Three soldiers sustained light-to-moderate injuries as a result of the blast, and some of the terrorists were hurt as well.
From the moment the incident was first reported of, the Southern Command and the General Staff have held constant meetings to evaluate the situation, headed by Army Chief Dan Halutz, in a bid to track down the cell behind the kidnapping and return the soldier to Israel.
At the initial stage, heavy equipment was deployed in the area where the incident occurred and where the tunnel was located, in order to try and uncover the terrorists' path. Large forces, including special units, have gone on a state of alert and are preparing to enter Rafah in a bid to locate the abducted soldier.
The IDF has also asked the Egyptian policemen stationed on the border to secure the area and make sure the terrorists don’t try and transfer the solider to Egypt. While the army has not completed investigating the occurrences in Kerem Shalom, difficult questions arise regarding the way the terrorists managed to infiltrate Israel and carry out the attack. One of the main questions is whether the deployment of the forces in the area was adequate. It is also unclear why no forces provided covering fire for the tank and APC at the post.
A Palestinian security official told Ynet that the terrorists who launched the attack Sunday morning arrived from Sinai and not from the Strip. According to the source, the fact that the attackers were armed and managed to enter the post without disruption testifies to the fact that they may have arrived from the Egyptian, not the Palestinian side.
Sources at the Popular Resistance Committees claimed that organization members, along with gunmen from Hamas and a new organization called "Army of Islam," fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF post in the southern Strip and exchanged fire with the troops. According to the PRC, "this is an operation of high quality, during which some of the people were parachuted close to the crossing."
One of the killed terrorists is Muhammad Fruana, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam member from Rafah. A source at the PRC defined the operation as "the ongoing illusion operation." According to the source, "the operation was aimed at making it clear that the Israeli security is an illusion. Israelis will have no security as long as the Palestinians have no security." A spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, claimed that there were no Palestinian casualties in the operation. The spokesman, Abu Ubaidah, said that "all the fighters who took part in the operation returned to their bases alive."
Sources at the PRC said that "the operation was a response to the assassination of the organization's leader, Jamal Abu Samhadana , who was killed by the IDF earlier this month, and a response to the killing of head of the group's military wing, Khalil al-Quqa , who was assassinated by the IDF about three months ago."
According to the Globe and Mail report the operation was in revenge for the targeting of Jamal Abu Samhadana. In the Ynet News Online report it was in response to Samhadana death by the IDF forces 16 days ago and the killing of Ihalil al-Quqa. I would suggest that it was neither.
The Popular Resistance Committees are not separate terrorist entities operating in the Israel but are an ad-hoc committee made up of members drawn from the PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad whose reason for existence is to share and expand operating abilities, pool resources and funding. The PRC allow plausible deniability for each member group to disavow publicly any atrocities that the PRC commits. For example, it provides just enough cover to allow Hamas apologists to maintain the fiction that Hamas has not violated the alleged February 25, 2006 truce agreement.
The Ynet News account does suggest one nugget of information which bears repeating because of the wide and long term repercussions, and no doubt the IDF investigators will be taking a long hard look at their Egyptian neighbours:
A Palestinian security official told Ynet that the terrorists who launched the attack Sunday morning arrived from Sinai and not from the Strip. According to the source, the fact that the attackers were armed and managed to enter the post without disruption testifies to the fact that they may have arrived from the Egyptian, not the Palestinian side.
If the Egyptian government at any level has rendered assistance in any overt or covert support for these operatives; it may represent the bells tolling for the Camp David Peace agreements.
Originally, I started to write this post yesterday, and subsequently, the Jerusalem Post is now reporting that the mastermind who planned the attack was none other than Jamal Abu Samhadana, the man who (courtesy of the IAF) joined al-Zawarqi in double dating in paradise on June 9th.
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