April 2006: Missiles, Bombs, Explosives

The scene [source] in central Tel-Aviv on April 17 after a fast-food stand is attacked by Islamic
Jihad murderers. Nine innocent people are murdered in the outrage.

2006-04-30	Perfidious Hamas: Last Wednesday, 26th April, an attempt was made to drive a huge quantity of explosives into the Karni crossing between Israel and Palestinian-controlled Gaza. The goal was to kill Israelis - a replay of a deadly attack at Karni in January 2005 that took 6 Israeli lives. Today, it is revealed that the terror attack was master-minded by Ahmed Randur, the senior Hamas (government) figure in north Gaza. For an insightful analysis of what all this means, click here - offline copy here: "By showing its true face Hamas is sabotaging its own public relations campaign..." The Karni crossing has been closed repeatedly by the Israeli authorities in recent months due to military intelligence alerts of planned attacks - reports which are now shown to be accurate but which were repeatedly pooh-poohed in sneering terms by such luminaries as Chris McGreal writing in The Guardian. Stay tuned for The Guardian's apology (holding breath not advised).
2006-04-28	Missiles: Another four deadly Qassam missiles crash into Israeli territory today. Whether or not they kill and maim is largely accidental given the poor skills of those firing them, but there is no reason to doubt their desire to cause maximum mayhem. Which other country would tolerate even one such attack, let alone the dozens that have fallen weekly since Hamas took over next door?
2006-04-27	Missile Attack: As evening falls in Israel's western Negev, a Qassam rocket explodes near Kibbutz Sa'ad, a community in which hundreds of people live, work and go about the business of trying to stay alive. Informed news-consumers in most parts of the world may be surprised to know (since it's almost never reported in their mainstream media) that dozens such missiles have been fired into Israel monthly since the start of this year; 35 landed during the week of Passover alone. The fact that much of the time they fail to kill may explain why scant attention is paid to them. These odds somehow fail to calm the people living in the target zone.
2006-04-26	Attempted Murders: "Suicide" bombers have made 82 attempts at infiltrating the security barrier. And that's only since the start of 2006. And only in the vicinity of Jerusalem. This emerged in a hearing at the High Court of Justice reported today. Israel's justice system continues to patiently accept and hear legal petitions against the barrier or its path: 62 are currently pending, filling the court's docket and causing years of life-sapping delay in the construction of one of the most effective and proven ways of protecting innocent people on both sides of the fence.
2006-04-25	Perspective: It's Holocaust Memorial Day: how surprising that the Israeli military is dealing with 76 current and active terror warnings of which 20 are classified as 'concrete'?
2006-04-24	Caught: Acting on field intelligence, Israeli forces stop a terrorist just north of Jerusalem on his way into the capital to carry out an attack. Haaretz (and almost no one outside Israel) report this, adding that it comes "...amid a steep increase in the number of alerts for attacks planned by Fatah cells. Military sources said Sunday that it appeared that, for the first time, the number of Fatah-linked alerts is equal to, or even greater than, the number of alerts pertaining to planned operations by the Islamic Jihad." Note that Fatah answers to Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. (Why is this analysis and news report buried in the recesses of blogs and minor news sources?!)
2006-04-23	Missile Attacks: Buried in one of the Israeli newspapers today and      barely reported elsewhere is the delayed disclosure (by the Israeli military) that a Katyusha artillery rocket was fired into Israeli civilian territory from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday. For most of us, Katyusha or Qassam - they're really all the same thing. But with a range of 15-30 kilometers and carrying a warhead of 20 kilograms, the Katyushas are considerably larger and deadlier than Qassam rockets - a significant escalation of lethality. The mainstream media meanwhile continue to report that the "truce" goes on, up is down and white is black.
2006-4-21	Bombers: In Dir Abu Def, just outside Jenin, Israeli security forces today intercept two members of Tanzim who are preparing to bomb a civilian target in Israel. This is totally unmentioned by any non-Israeli media. Tanzim are one of several terror groups affiliated with the mainstream Fatah political organization, led by Abbas, the Palestinian president.
2006-4-20	Missile Attacks: Almost entirely unreported, the steady barrage of rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists into civilian centers in Israel continues. During the week of Passover, ending today, 35 Qassam rockets landed on Israeli ground, mainly near the city of Ashkelon, every one of them intended to cause civilian deaths and injuries, every one constituting a casus belli (sufficient legal grounds to start a war against those who sent them). The barrage continues today in full force. The ongoing deadly attack remains ignored by media editors outside Israel. How can anyone understand Israeli military actions without knowing about the events that trigger them?
2006-04-17	Massacre: A 21 year-old Palestinian Arab man from the Jenin area explodes at the Rosh Ha'eer fast-food restaurant, next to Tel Aviv's Old Central Bus Station. The same restaurant had been bombed in Jan 2006 with no fatalities. This time 9 killed, 65 injured and maimed. Islamic Jihad proudly claims the credit. Government-controlled newspapers in Egypt (that has diplomatic relations and a 'cold peace' with Israel) are divided between those who condemn and those who praise the terror attack. The Hamas government faces no such difficulty, declaring the Palestinian Arabs "have the will and the right to defend themselves and to confront as much as they can the arrogances of the occupation". (Both Islamic Jihad and Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claim credit for this massacre.)
2006-04-14	Rocket: A Qassam launched from northern Gaza lands near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai's dining room while members are at dinner. The building is damaged and the al-Quds Brigades claim the credit. Some two hundred (repeat: 200) Qassam rockets have fallen on the grounds of the kibbutz (6 km south of the city of Ashkelon) in the past few months. Is anyone paying attention?

January to March, 2006: A Chronology

High-speed car chase, March 21, 2006

2006-Mar-30	Ambushed: Rafi Halevy and his wife Helena, driving home from Karnei Shomron, stop to pick up some hitchhikers, two girls... and a Palestinian Arab masquerading as a Jew. As the vehicle approaches the Israeli town of Kedumim, the Arab explodes. Al Aqsa Martyr Brigades proudly claim credit. In all, four innocent Israeli civilians are killed.
2006-Mar-21	Intercept: Catastrophe narrowly averted: acting on pinpoint intelligence, Israeli forces spot and then pursue a van in a high-speed car chase on Israel's main artery, the Jerusalem/Tel-Aviv highway, snarling traffic throughout the country. The Arabs are apprehended, and forced to strip to their underwear (prompting savage protests) to prevent further injury or death to those they hate. Their van is found to be filled with explosives intended for a massive bombing of an Israeli city. Huge number of innocent lives are saved.
2006-Mar-01	Slasher: Armed with a kitchen knife, an Arab man hurls himself at Israelis waiting for a bus at Gush Etzion junction, a few minutes south of Jerusalem. Stabbing whomever he can reach, he slashes a 17-year-old girl and a 25 year-old man who had recently immigrated from India. Both victims, with their attacker, are rushed to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital's emergency room.Reported in Israel but almost nowhere else. But there is more to this story than meets the eye. Haaretz, delving a little deeper, says: "Young Palestinians who are being apprehended almost daily with knives at West Bank roadblocks apparently wish to be sent to Israeli prison, where they can study for their matriculation exams in peace. Since the beginning of the year, 101 Palestinians have been caught at roadblocks with knives in their possession... these incidents have increased by tens of percentages... [The] unofficial explanation that is corroborated by Palestinian sources, including the arrested youngsters: some of them - military sources estimate at 50 percent - wanted to be arrested. Since the beginning of March, seven Palestinians carrying knives were arrested at the Salem roadblock, on the Green Line, at the northwestern exit from Jenin. Five others were caught with firecrackers or pipe bombs. The soldiers got the impression that the youngsters wanted to turn themselves in. At the southern exit from Nablus, in Hawara, youths carrying ammunition or pipe bombs are arrested almost daily. In some cases they make no attempt to conceal the firearms. According to the Central Command, the youngsters wish to be caught and jailed mainly to pass their matriculation exams, this summer, in Israeli prison. At home it is difficult for them to study due to economic constraints and the subsequent need to help their families make a living." Remember reading this in your mainstream newspaper? Didn't think so. UPDATE: A Reuters report picks this theme up on 11-May-06 in a Jerusalem-datelined article called "In desperation, Palestinians seek prison in Israel". (Why do journalists keep reaching for the 'desperation' word when reporting on problems in Palestinian Arab society?)
2006-Feb-21	Rockets: Terrorists operating from Bethlehem are stopped by Israeli security en route to launching rocket attacks on Jerusalem's suburbs. Under interrogation, gang members admit to planning mortar and deadly small-arms attacks on the Gilo and Har Homa neighborhoods. Their leader turns out to be a salaried senior member of the Palestine Authority's National Security Service (whose budget is provided by donor countries, mainly in Europe - an old and painful issue that has never been resolved but keeps getting worse).
2006-Feb-05	Stabbings: In Petah Tikva, a Tel-Aviv-area suburb, a Palestinian Arab man traveling in a public minibus slashes fellow passengers, killing a 60-year-old woman - Kinneret Ben-Shalom Hajbi, a mother of three who was on her way to a Tel-Aviv hospital where she was a volunteer, and who preferred a minibus as a safer alternative to the public bus. 5 other passengers are wounded, four in serious condition.
2006-Feb-02	Bomber: At Hawara crossover point near Nablus, a Palestinian Arab woman is spotted carrying pipe-bombs under her clothing and arrested. No one dies, no one is injured; she is arrested.
2006-Jan-19	Bombing: A Palestinian Arab man walks in to the Rosh Ha-eer restaurant near Tel Aviv's Old Central Bus Station. He explodes. 33 people are injured; fortunately no fatalities. The man with the bomb dies. Islamic Jihad proudly claims credit for this major achievement. (Now look at what happened on April 17, 2006.)

2005: Daily Chronology

2005-12-29	Bombing: Israeli military intelligence is alerted to a bomber on his way to carry out a massacre in an Israel city. They throw up an instant roadblock near Tulkarem where they stop a Palestinian Arab taxi. One of the passengers, an innocent-looking individual, gets out and walks towards the soldiers... and explodes, killing the driver of the Palestinian taxi and a second person believed to be the bomber's assistant. A young lieutenant manning the Israeli checkpoint is killed. Islamic Jihad claims the credit.
2005-12-19	Intercepted: Israeli security personnel catch 2 armed Palestinian Arab men near the neighborhood of Har Homa, en route to doing a terror attack in Jerusalem. They have two firebombs, two knives, a Hamas flag and material for two pipe bombs. This is so      insignificant that it goes unreported except for some Israelis newspapers.
2005-12-16	Drive-by: Palestinian Arab men open fire from their car at Yosef Shok, 35 and father of five children aged between 9 and one month. Their bullets kill him. Islamic Jihad and Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claim joint credit. Shok was a building engineer at the Kiryat Arba Development Company and a member of the local council.
2005-12-15	Boobytrap: Israeli soldiers spot a car parked near Beit Jala, perched just above the busy Jerusalem-Gush Etzion traffic tunnel. The car turns out to be packed with gas canisters, pipe bombs, gas-soaked tires and other explosive materials. Evidently the plan of the terrorists was to roll the car down the hill and into the heavily-traveled tunnel, causing injuries and death on a massive scale. This time their plan is frustrated. The perpetrators are still free.
2005-12-08	Stabbing: An Arab man from the Gaza Strip pushes to the front of the "humanitarian needs" line reserved for the elderly, the infirm and pregnant women at the Qalandiyah crossover (pictured) into Israel, on Jerusalem's northern edge. Pulling a knife, he kills a 21 year-old Israeli doing his military service as a trained check-point specialist. Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claims responsibility for the attack.
2005-12-08	Intercepted: A 15-year-old Palestinian Arab boy is 'savagely' prevented from killing himself and others by 'vicious' Israeli occupation forces at the Hawara checkpoint near Shechem (Nablus). The child's heavy jacket arouses suspicion. A body search reveals two pipe bombs, primed and ready for use.
2005-12-05	Bombing: At the heavily secured entrance to the Sharon shopping mall in Netanya, a Palestinian Arab man explodes when stopped by one of the Israeli guards. There are five dead, innocent victims of shopping in the presence of barbarians: Haim Amram, 26, of Netanya, a security guard at the mall; Daniel Golani, 45, of Nahariya; Elia Rosen, 38, of Bat Hefer; Keinan Tsuami, 20, of Petah Tikva; and Alexandra Garmitzky, 65, of Netanya. Competing claims of credit are made by Islamic Jihad and by Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
2005-11-25	Stabbing: In Jerusalem, a 16-year-old boy from Jerusalem is stabbed 6 times and seriously injured by two Arabs in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood where he lives. He survives; they escape. Virtually unreported.
2005-10-26	Massacre: At an open-air food stand in Hadera, a Palestinian Arab, sent by Islamic Jihad, walks up to the counter and explodes. Six Israelis are murdered; 55 injured. Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, says "the attack harmed Palestinian interests" - misleadingly interpreted in some media circles as condemning the act of terror. The dead include Michael Kaufman, 68, of Hadera; Pirhiya Machlouf, 53, of Hadera; Sabiha Nissim, 66, of Moshav Ahituv; Jamil Qa'adan, 48, of Baka al-Gharbiya; and Ya'acov Rahmani, 68, of Hadera.
2005-10-16	Drive-by: A Palestinian Arab vehicle speeds past a bus stop at the busy Gush Etzion junction, and the passengers shoot the people standing there waiting for a bus. Three young Israelis are killed; 3 others wounded. Two of the dead are young women: Matat Rosenfeld Adler, 21, who was married 3 months earlier (pictured right, as a radiant bride); and her cousin Kineret Mandel, 23. The third is a 15 year-old boy, Oz Ben-Meir. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claims responsibility.
2005-10-16	Drive-by: A boy of 14 is seriously wounded by Palestinian Arab drive-by shooters near his home in the Israeli town of Eli. He and another boy are walking along the road; he is shot in the chest and thigh and rushed to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem by paramedics. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claims responsibility.
2005-09-24	Rockets: The battered Israeli town of Sederot comes under Hamas rocket fire yet again. While almost every news outlet in the world ignores the onslaught, the US Department of State records that 24 Qassam rockets rain down on the town in a single day. 11 anonymous individuals are injured; a school, a house, a gymnasium and a factory are all damaged. The Hamas operational arm, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, takes proud responsibility while the 'truce' goes on.
2005-09-21	Murder: Sassson Nuriel, a 55 year-old Israeli who made his living as a candy maker, is kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists near his place of employment in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone just east of Jerusalem. His lifeless body is found four days later. Investigations later reveal the murderers are members of a Hamas cell. They had previously been work-mates of Nuriel and knew him well.
2005-08-28	Intercepted: In Beersheba, 2 security guards at the Central Bus Station spot a Palestinian Arab man during morning rush hour acting suspiciously and carrying a heavy bag. They chase him; he explodes. Dozens of commuters are treated for shock. The terrorist is the only one to die. Three different Palestinian terror organizations claim credit for this major achievement which comes a week after Israeli authorities destroy the last of the Jewish villages in the Gaza Strip and hand the area over to the Palestinian government.
2005-08-25	Stabbed: In Jerusalem's Old City, a 21 year-old student, Shmuel Matt, visiting from the United Kingdom, is stabbed to death by a Palestinian Arab assailant. Another student, a 20 year-old American, is also stabbed and survives.
2005-08-22	Today, the controversial evacuation of Israelis from all Jewish villages of the Gaza Strip, and the demolition of all buildings except places of worship, is completed. Israel's public life roils with the tensions. Nothing else changes.
2005-08-07	Shooting: A 10-year-old boy is shot in the head and gravely wounded in a drive-by shooting at Ateret, a town near Jerusalem. Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades takes the credit.
2005-07-23	Drive-by: Dov Kol and his wife Rachel are shot dead in their car as they drive home to Jerusalem from spending the Sabbath with family in Ganei Tal, a community in the Gaza district. Five other Israelis are wounded in the attack. Kol is described as a man with more Arab friends than Jewish friends; gunmen from both the Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades take care of that problem.
2005-07-16	Rockets: The town of Sederot again comes under sustained, day-long rocket attack: seven separate Qassam missiles crash into the town. This almost entirely unreported nightmare leaves 7 children and nine civilian adults in severe shock requiring medical      treatment; kills a family dog; and damages a family's home and a rehabilitation swimming pool. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades      of Hamas claims responsibility.
2005-07-14	Rockets: Another day of achievement for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. Its rockets and mortars, fired from the Gaza Strip, crash into the village of Netiv Ha'Asarah. One hits a dwelling.Dana Glakowitz, 22, is sitting on the porch with her boyfriend and is killed. The house is destroyed - and so is the family. Hamas demanded a share of the credit.
2005-07-12	Massacre: An 18 year old from a Palestinian Arab village prematurely explodes on the pedestrian crossing outside the main shopping mall in Netanya. He kills 5, injures 90. Islamic Jihad proudly claims credit.
2005-07-01	Rocket: A Qassam is fired at Yad Mordechai, a town in the south of Israel.
2005-06-24	Drive-by: Islamic Jihad claims credit for shooting to death Yevgeny Rider, 28, in a drive-by ambush in the Jenin area. A teenage passenger in his minivan is wounded. Rider is pictured right with his baby daughter. An American newspaper points out that this is the third shooting attack claimed by Islamic Jihad in the past three days. While this might lead people to think Islamic Jihad are a murderous band of thugs, the Palestinian group sees it differently. This was no accident, and the driver was not caught in some sort of crossfire. More than this: they are "not abandoning the truce" they say but the lethal shootings "were in response to recent arrests of Islamic Jihad members." The mounting death tool of 'truce' victims attests to the ill-advisability of treating thugs like IJ as civilized humans.
2005-06-24	Drive-by: A drive-by shooting at the hitch-hike point near the entrance to Beit Hagai: 2 Israeli teenagers are killed; 4 are wounded. Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade demands credit.
2005-06-20	Intercepted: A Gaza woman, Wafa Samir Ibrahim al-Biss, 21, holds a permit from Israeli authorities to get top-notch medical treatment at an Israeli hospital for her severe home-inflicted burns. Acting on a tip from the Shin Bet, Israeli soldiers stop her at the Erez checkpoint and search her carefully. They find 10 kg of explosives in her pants (her first reaction is to say she was unaware it was there). Her plan: to explode the hospital and take as many Jewish lives (doctors, nurses, patients) as possible with her.
2005-06-18	Rockets: 3 Qassam rockets crash onto Ben-Gurion Blvd. in the southern town (not "occupied" territory, not"disputed" territory - just an Israeli town) of Sderot (pictured right). The damage is minor, and so is the reporting (we could only find it mentioned here) but Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas see fit to take credit anyway. One terror attack, in their book, is as good as another and lives are not what it's about anyway.
2005-06-16	Rockets: Two Qassam rockets crash into the center of Sderot in the south of Israel. A college campus and a car are damaged. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) claims responsibility.
2005-05-24	Bomber: A Palestinian boy of 15 years arouses suspicion at the checkpoint in Hawara, near Nablus, because of his bag which turns out to contain two pipe bombs. The army reports that "this is the 15th incident in the past two months in which Palestinian youths under the age of 18 have attempted to detonate explosive devices at crossings in the West bank, or smuggle weaponry via the crossings." Unreported.
2005-05-19	Missile: Sderot, a non-occupied, a non-disputed town in the south of Israel comes under missile attack again. Someone's back garden is blown up, but no one knows about this outside Israel since, in the absence of dead bodies, it was not deemed newsworthy.
2005-05-12	Missile: About midnight in the northern community of Shlomi, a Katyusha rocket slams into the town's industrial zone, destroying a bakery and narrowly missing the spot where townspeople are gathered for their Yom Ha'Atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) festivities. The US State Dept says this was probably the work of Hizballah.
2005-04-12	Bomber: Hawara crossing, near Nablus: A 15 year old is intercepted by Israeli soldiers. On his body: five pipe bombs. Here's how one Israeli newspaper reported it (and good luck if you want to find a non-Israeli report): “You could see it’s a young child who was sent (by someone.) I looked into his eyes, he was on the brink of tears and scared to death,” said Muli, a paratrooper whose full name cannot be revealed for security reasons. “The boy pulled out a matchbox, held up a pipe bomb, and attempted to detonate it... We aimed our weapons at him and told him to move away from us.” After the boy was instructed to remove his jacket, soldiers discovered another four pipe bombs and a knife, Muli said. The boy aroused the troops’ suspicions after approaching the Hawara roadblock wearing a jacket, despite the hot weather. Later, sappers were dispatched to the scene in order to neutralize the explosive devices."
2005-02-25	Bomber: Four Israelis are killed, 30 injured, when a bomb is exploded by a Palestinian Arab outside Stage Club, a Tel-Aviv night club. This is the first public Palestinian 'celebration' of the Sharon/Abbas "truce" declared at the Sharm a-Sheikh conference seventeen days earlier on 8th February 2005.