27-Sep-06: Scenes from Israel's Homeland Defence

Far from the headlines, there's plenty going on in Israel's ongoing war with the forces of terror in, near and around our home-towns.

Early this morning (Wednesday), the Israel Air Force targeted a house in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces said it had attacked a house used as cover to dig a weapons smuggling tunnel under the border with Egypt. The house belonged to a known weapons dealer called Sammy al-Shaer. In accordance with standard Israeli defence Forces practice, the army phoned al-Shaer 15 minutes before the initial raid and told him to clear out of the house. He and his family promptly did.

No injuries came from the initial strike which leveled the house. Children immediately gathered to look at the rubble when the second part of the air strike took place. This time, it appears, a 14-year-old girl was killed and other children (according to some reports 7, according to others 10) were injured, Gaza hospital officials are quoted saying.

In the Balata "refugee camp", next to Nablus in the West Bank, IDF soldiers - accompanied by Shin Bet agents - seized a 10 kg explosives belt, the kind of barbaric weaponry responsible for hundreds of cold-blooded murders of innocent Israelis. In a resulting exchange of fire with IDF soldiers, three Palestinian Arab gunmen were injured. Palestinians sources, however, said they did not know of any casualties. Balata has long been identified as one of the major concentrations of civilian-targeted terrorist activity by Palestinian Arab groups. Yediot Aharonot reports that

The incident began when the forces encircled a building in which wanted Palestinians were hiding; gunmen inside proceeded to open fire at the forces and threw explosive devices at them. There were no injuries to the IDF forces, who returned fire. At least three gunmen were injured during the exchange of fire; their condition remains unclear. The army said two Palestinians wanted by the Israeli security establishment were apprehended during the operation; a search conducted after the arrests revealed the explosive belt hidden between garbage cans outside the building. Sappers were dispatched to perform a controlled-detonation of the belt.
Major Meir, the deputy commander of the 101st Paratroopers Battalion, told Ynet, “I said to my troops following the operation ‘you saved the lives of at least 20 people in Netanya’”. The paratroopers returned to Nablus just three weeks ago after taking part in the Lebanon war. Major Meir continued: “As part of the constant pressure applied on the terror organizations and terror centers in Nablus we carried out an operation overnight to arrest wanted Palestinians. When the force arrived at the building gunmen hurled explosive devices that luckily did not strike the troops; three gunmen were inured in the ensuing gunfight.
“A major terror attack was thwarted here just before Yom Kippur,” he said. “There are numerous warnings originating from Nablus and we are doing all we can to prevent the attacks.”
...A senior Central Command officer told Ynet recently that “Nablus was and remains a West Bank terror hub and there arte repeated attempts to carry out attacks against Israeli targets.” According to the officer, these attempts have intensified in the aftermath of the war in Lebanon, mainly on the part of Islamic Jihad. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday that over the past two weeks the security establishment succeeded in preventing 10 suicide attacks planned by terrorists in the West Bank.

Also overnight, IDF soldiers arrested 19 wanted Palestinian Arab terror suspects in arrest raids in various towns in the West Bank region.