Palestine-info, April 19, 2010
Rocket and mortar shell fire into Israeli territory
Rocket Fire 2010, Monthly Distribution
A Hamas court martial sentences to death suspects of cooperation with Israel
Ahmed Bahar
Hamas administration chief Isma'il Haniyah visits prisoners' families in Gaza
The christening ceremony of the Ramallah street named after Abu Jihad
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Overview
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Important Events
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Gaza Strip
Rocket and mortar shell fire
The quiet in the Gaza Strip continued, and no rocket or mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory during the past week. A number of rockets landed in Gaza Strip territory.
Rocket and mortar shell fired into Israeli territory 1
Rocket Fire 2010, Monthly Distribution2
Since the end of Operation Cast Lead 161 hits have been identified
and 74 mortar shells have been fired into Israeli territory
IDF force hit a terrorist who attempted to set an IED
On April 16, an IDF force identified a suspicious figure apparently trying to set an IED near the security fence along the Gaza Strip, in front of the Israeli village of Kfar Aza. The terrorist threw a grenade at the force. The IDF force returned fire and killed him. The IDF force suffered no casualties (IDF spokesman, April 16).
Palestinian media report that two Palestinians were killed in the Al-Bureij refugee camp as a result of an IED explosion. The two were said to be on their way to perpetrate a terrorist attack in Israel (Palestine-info, April 17).
Hamas and PIJ seniors speak about the restrained fire policy
Hamas continues the restrained fire policy, attempting to enforce it on the other Palestinian organizations. In that context, Moussa Abu Marzouq, the deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, said on April 13 that Hamas was interested in maintaining the ceasefire. According to Marzouq, there is a consensus among the organizations not to fire rockets at Israel at the moment, and all the recent rocket attacks were violations of that policy. The reason he cited was not to give Israel a pretext to start a war. However, Abu Marzouq denied that Hamas was preventing other organizations from firing at Israel (AP, April 13).
Ihab Al-Ghussein, the spokesman of the Hamas administration Interior Ministry, confirmed that the Hamas internal security service had apprehended on April 14 several PIJ operatives near the Gaza Strip border. According to Al-Ghussein, they were first apprehended because they "jeopardized the resistance", but when their organizational affiliation became apparent the matter became criminal after one operative attacked a Hamas policeman (Hamas Internal Ministry website, April 15). Ziyad Nakhalah, the PIJ deputy general secretary, announced that there was no decision or agreement with Hamas requiring his organization to maintain the quiet, however, there was a PIJ decision to avoid an escalation with Israel due to the movement’s considerations. He added that his movement would launch rockets in case of a military confrontation with Israel (Al-Hayat, April 17).
Judea and Samaria
Attack on an Israeli vehicle
On April 14, an Israeli citizen reported that he was fired on and stones were thrown at his vehicle when he was driving near the Samaria village of Azoun. Intelligence information led Israeli security forces to detain three village residents suspected of involvement in the attack (IDF Spokesmen, April 15).
IDF soldier injured in a confrontation with settlers
On April 20 a group of settlers attempted to enter a village south of Nablus. An IDF force attempting to prevent them from entering the village, a closed military zone, was attacked by the settlers. An IDF soldier was lightly injured (IDF Spokesman, April 20).
Counterterrorism activities
Israeli security forces continued their counter activities, in which several dozen terrorist suspects were detained and weapons were confiscated. At the same time, confrontations continued during violent demonstrations in various sites in Judea and Samaria.
Stones continued to be thrown at Israeli vehicles. An Israeli citizen was lightly injured. Several noteworthy events follow:
April 18 – stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle southwest of Bethlehem. Stones were also thrown at Israeli vehicles northeast of Ramallah and southeast of Bethlehem. There were no casualties. The vehicles were damaged (IDF Spokesman, April 18).
April 17 – stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle west of Bethlehem. On the same day, stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle south of Ramallah. There were no casualties. The vehicles were damaged (IDF Spokesman, April 17).
April 15 – stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle southwest of Bethlehem. An Israeli civilian was lightly injured (IDF Spokesman, April 15).
April 14 – stones were thrown at an Israeli bus southwest of Bethlehem. There were no casualties. The bus was damaged (IDF Spokesman, April 14).
April 13 – stones were thrown at an Israeli vehicle south of Bethlehem. There were no casualties. The vehicle was damaged (IDF Spokesman, April 13).
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Developments in the Gaza Strip
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Hamas executed two Palestinians accused of cooperation with Israel
The Hamas court in the Gaza Strip executed on April 15 two Palestinians accused of cooperation with Israel, Mohammed Ibrahim Isma’il and Salameh Abu Freih. The execution was strongly condemned by human rights organizations and the Palestinian Authority.
Fathi Hamad, the Interior Minister of the Hamas administration, called a press conference in which he addressed the execution of the two Palestinians. He said that as part of his ministry’s efforts to improve services given to residents, it was decided to enforce the law of execution on all those who cooperate with Israel. Hamas stressed that the executions would continue in order to "safeguard the Palestinians and the project of jihad and liberation despite the criticism from human rights organizations". Hamad called on human rights organizations to address the acts of murder committed by the two defendants instead of the Hamas judiciary (Al-Aqsa TV, April 19).
The reaction of the Palestinian Authority:
Osama al-Qawasmi, a Fatah spokesman, said that the execution was a violation of fundamental law and that Hamas courts were fundamentally illegitimate and their decisions were void and illegal (Wafa, April 15).
The PA Ministry of Justice strongly condemned Hamas for killing the two civilians (Wafa, April 15, 2010).
Reactions of human rights organizations:
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on the Hamas administration not to perform further executions and to revoke the death penalty. She said she was extremely concerned over reports according to which more executions were scheduled to take place soon. She also called on Hamas to reconsider its position and to respect the international community’s condemnation of the death penalty (UN website, April 16).
Several Palestinian human rights organizations published a joint announcement condemning Hamas’ decision to execute the two civilians charged with cooperation with Israel (Wafa, April 15, 2010).
A Hamas court martial sentences to death suspects of cooperation with Israel
(Al-Risala, April 15)
Hamas’ statements on the occasion of the "Prisoner’s Week"
In the past week, Palestinians marked the "Palestinian Prisoner’s Week". Khaled Mash’al, the head of the Hamas political bureau, gave a speech at the Arab culture center in the Al-Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus. Following are the main points of his speech (Chinese News agency, April 20, 2010):
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"Resistance" (i.e., terrorism) is the only way to repel the Israeli "occupation".
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Hamas will continue to act towards the release of prisoners and continue to abduct Israeli soldiers: "Gilad Shalit is neither the first nor the last".
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There will be no intra-Palestinian reconciliation as long as the Egyptian initiative includes a demand to recognize Israel.
Hamas administration chief Isma’il Haniyah gave a speech on the occasion of Prisoner’s Day in the sympathy tent erected in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza. He stressed that "all the options are open" to release prisoners in Israeli prisoners and called for an escalation of the "resistance" in the West Bank. Haniyah addressed the "popular resistance" in the West Bank and argued that "popular resistance is a good thing� the best resistance is that which can hurt Israel" (Quds Press, April 17).
Ahmed Bahar, the deputy speaker of the Legislative Council, noted that "abducting soldiers is the only way to release Palestinian prisoners" (Felesteen al-Aan, April 16, 2010).
 Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the Legislative Council (Al-Aqsa TV, April 18) |
 Hamas administration chief Isma’il Haniyah visits prisoners’ families in Gaza (Al-Aqsa TV, April 21) |
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The Political Struggle
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The Palestinian Authority named a street in Ramallah after Khalil al-Wazir 3
On April 20, a street in Ramallah was named after Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), the former leader of the Fatah military wing. The ceremony was attended by Abu Mazen’s representative, Al-Tayyib Abd al-Rahim; Abd al-Rahim Mallouh, member of the PLO executive committee; Khalil al-Wazir’s wife, Intisar al-Wazir; and the mayor of Ramallah, Janet Mikhail.
Al-Tayyib Abd al-Rahim said that Abu Mazen honored him by representing him during the street naming ceremony, and that Khalil al-Wazir was the companion of both Abu Mazen and Yasser Arafat. Abd al-Rahim praised Khalil al-Wazir and described him as one of the first to carry out acts of "resistance" against Israeli since 1965, together with Yasser Arafat.
Janet Mikhail, the mayor of Ramallah, said that "Israel’s threats" would not scare the Palestinians and that they would continue naming streets after shaheeds since they were part of Palestinian history (Wafa, April 20).
The christening ceremony of the Ramallah street named after Abu Jihad
(Wafa, April 20, 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 The statistics refer to rocket hits identified in Israeli territory. A similar number misfired and landed inside the Gaza Strip.
3 Khalil al-Wazir (1935-1988), known as Abu Jihad, co-founded Fatah with Yasser Arafat. He was responsible for terrorist attacks at the Savoy Hotel (1975) and on the Coastal Road (1978). He masterminded the terrorist attack in the Qirya camp in 1985, which was thwarted by Israeli security forces.
