Photo: Boaz Ratner for Reuters, August 15, 2010
Rocket and mortar shell fire into Israeli territory
Rocket Fire 2010, Monthly Distribution
Sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi (Hamas� Palestine-info website, August 15, 2010).
Terrorist organization leaders meet in Damascus
 Removing a section of the concrete security barrier in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The barrier protected the local residents from Palestinian snipers and mortar shells fired from Beit Jala. It was removed following an improvement in security in recent years (Photo: Boaz Ratner for Reuters, August 15, 2010). |
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Overview
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Important Events
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The Gaza Strip
Rocket Fire
On August 16 Israeli security forces prevented an attack against IDF forces with an IED placed near the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip. A force identified the terrorist operatives and shot at them. One of the operatives, Bassam al-Dughma, was killed, and an IDF soldier sustained minor wounds. The operative was a prominent member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who, among other things, participated in the exchange of fire five months ago in which an IDF soldier was killed. The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the current attack (IDF Spokesman's website, August 17, 2010; Popular Resistance Committees military wing website, August 16, 2010).
On August 16 two Qassam rockets fell in the northwestern Negev in an open area (Ynet, August 17, 2010).
On the morning of August 17 two mortar shells were fired at an IDF force near the security fence. Two soldiers sustained minor wounds. Two mortar shells fell in an open area in the northwestern Negev (IDF Spokesman and Ynet, August 17, 2010).
Rockets and Mortar Shells Fired into Israeli Territory 1
Rocket Fire 2010, Monthly Distribution *
* Rocket hits identified in Israeli territory. A similar number misfire and customarily land inside the Gaza Strip. |
Judea and Samaria
The Israeli security forces continued their counterterrorism activities, detaining Palestinians suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and seizing weapons. Riots continued at various sites in Judea and Samaria.��
On August 15 the IDF began removing the concrete security barrier placed near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. It was decided to remove them because calm has prevailed in the area in recent years. The barriers were erected in 2002 to protect the residents from sniper and mortar shell attacks carried out from the nearby� town of Beit Jala (IDF Spokesman, August 12, 2010).
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Flotillas and Convoys to the Gaza Strip
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More Flotillas and Convoys Planned � Update
International� initiatives to organize flotillas and aid convoys to the Gaza Strip continue, as follows:
Lebanon
The Lebanese women's ship Mar Yam is still anchored in the Lebanese port of Tripoli. Samar al-Hajj, coordinator for the ship's organizing committee, claimed that the necessary documents were ready and would be presented to the minister of transport. She also claimed that a press conference would be held in the near future to announce the exact date on which the ship would sail. The Lebanese media reported that the ship would sail "in the coming days" (Al-Nishra, August 15 2010).
Other Initiatives
Europe
Sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi
(Hamas� Palestine-info website, August 15, 2010).
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Freedom Fleet 2
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Italy: Mahmoud Hanoun, a member of a pro-Palestinian organization calling itself the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG), announced that at least 30 Italian civilian institutions and dozens of Italian VIPs had joined Freedom Fleet 2. It was reported that a committee would be formed to establish contacts between the organization and the Italian public and that it would also try to promote the issue in Italian politics (Al-Quds and Ikhwanweb.com, August 12, 2010). According to the organization's website, it was attempting to integrate at least one Italian ship into the flotilla and a number of correspondents had expressed the desire to participate (European Campaign to Lift the Siege of Gaza website, July 31, 2010).
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Switzerland: Anwar Gharbi, also a member of the ECESG and head of the Swiss organization Rights for All Society, said that "significant" political parties wanted to join the flotilla and that 450 activists had already been recruited from them. In addition, 220 NGOs and labor unions also expressed a desire to join. He said that the flotilla had been widely covered in the Swiss media and that a number of Swiss Parliament members had called for organizing flights to the Gaza Strip (Abna.ir, August 14, 2010).
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South Africa: Ihsaan Hendricks, chairman of the South African supreme judicial council and a member of the board of trustees of the World Council of Muslim Theologians said the council was making preparations for a flotilla which would set sail after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He said that one of the participants would be sheikh Yussuf al-Qardawi, who would be joined by other senior Muslim clerics. Al-Qardawi is a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, famous and influential in the Arab-Muslim world, who has supported suicide bombing terrorism and called for the murder of Jews2.
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More Flotillas and Convoys Planned � Update
The Arab countries
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Yemen: On August 2 a day of broadcasts was held to raise donations for a Yemeni flotilla. Academic personnel and business men participated, and 57 million rials (about $249,000) were collected.
Fahed Abu al-Hajj, director of the Abu Jihad Center for the Prisoners' Movement located at Al-Quds University in Ramallah claimed that a group of former prisoners was organizing to sail a ship called Candles of Freedom after the end of Ramadan. Its destination would be Arab and other countries and its objective would be to "shed light on the prisoners' suffering" (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, August 13, 2010).
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Developments in the Gaza Strip
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The Crossings
This past week 1,134 trucks entered the Gaza Strip, 500 of them carrying food, five with medical equipment and medicine and 32 with clothing (Coordinator for activity in the territories, August 12, 2010).
The Egyptian Media Continue Attacking Hamas for the Rocket Fire at Eilat
Abdallah Kamal, the editor in chief of Ruz al-Yusuf, wrote that even if Egypt were "forced to have contacts with Hamas, the unlawful body controlling the Gaza Strip," Hamas was [still] a "strategic danger" to Egyptian interests and an "ongoing threat" to Egypt's stability and national security. He said that Hamas' ideology, which believed in a religious state, was contrary to Egypt's concept of a civil society. In addition, he said, Hamas was linked to countries and organizations working against Egyptian interests, such as Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and organizations, he claimed, affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
The editorial also accused Hamas of "serving the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood's global network and regarding itself as its geographic rear along the border with Egypt." It also claimed that "as long as Hamas poses that kind of danger to Egyptian security, we should attack the Gaza Strip and topple its regime" (Al-Quds Al-Arabi, August 10, 2010).
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Statements from Senior Palestinian Terrorist Figures
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The following are some statements from senior figures in Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad:
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Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, congratulated excelling high school students, saying that "knowledge is a weapon, just as a rifle is a weapon in the hands of a man of the resistance [i.e., a terrorist]." He said that "victory will arrive through knowledge and the rifle" and that if Israel manufactured missiles "we will manufacture rockets and destroy all their fortifications," because the Palestinians "possessed rights and the land" (Al-Jazeera TV, August 11, 2010).
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Mahmoud al-Zahar, senior Hamas figure in the Gaza Strip, claimed that it was the duty of Muslims to erect a mosque near Ground Zero, Muslims "have to build everywhere" so that followers can pray, just like Christians and Jews" (Jerusalem Post, August 16, 2010).
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Abu Ahmed, spokesman for the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad� in the Gaza Strip, claimed that the PIJ would "succeed in restoring its deterrent capability in the West Bank�[and would] not miss any opportunity�to carryout a suicide bombing attack" in the heart of the "Zionist entity." He added that because of the security coordination [of the Palestinian Authority] in Judea and Samaria it would not be easy. He called on the Palestinian Authority to stop working against the "resistance" [i.e., the terrorist organizations]. He said that "the resistance in Gaza is much stronger than it was in Operation Cast Lead," and that it had the means "to hurt Israel" and would acquire longer-range rockets than the "local [range] rockets." He denied that Iran was supporting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas with weapons but admitted that it was providing money for the families of shaheeds, prisoners and "charitable societies" (Palestinian Islamic Jihad military wing website, August 1, 2010).
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Opposition to Negotiations with Israel
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The terrorist organizations operating in Syria, among them Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and others, met in Damascus and announced that they opposed direct and indirect negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. They said that the return to direct negotiations was "surrender to Zionist-American dictates" whose objective was to hide the "aggressive plots" of the United States and Israel (Hamas� Palestine-info website, August 15, 2010).
Terrorist organization leaders meet in Damascus and announce their opposition to any
negotiations with Israel, direct or indirect (Palestinian Islamic Jihad website, August 17, 2010).
1 The statistics do not include the mortar shells fired at IDF soldiers patrolling the border fence which fell inside the Gaza Strip.
2 �For further information see the March 19, 2009 bulletin, �Anti-Semitism in the Arab media� at http://terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/as_e002.pdf.
