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Israelis uncover al-Qa'ida in Gaza
TEN al-Qa'ida-affiliated terrorists have infiltrated the Gaza Strip in recent weeks to lay the infrastructure for strikes against Israel, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported yesterday.Israeli officials say the Gaza Strip has been open to large-scale smuggling of weapons and terrorists since Israel's withdrawal last September. The entry of militants aligned to global jihad factions is of concern to many Palestinians because any new conflict may drag in the local population. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned several weeks ago of an al-Qa'ida presence in Gaza. The attitude of Hamas towards the new development is unclear, although the Islamic group has maintained a ceasefire with Israel for the past year. The al-Qa'ida operatives, mostly Egyptian citizens, reportedly include men trained in Lebanon and Afghanistan in sophisticated explosive devices and large-scale attacks. Israel announced last month the arrest of two alleged al-Qa'ida operatives on the West Bank - local Palestinians said to have been recruited in Jordan by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the insurgency in Iraq. An Israeli army source told Ha'aretz yesterday: "The focus of global Islamic terror on our region has already become a distinct phenomenon - we're not talking about gut feelings." Two peripheral strikes on Israeli-held territory in recent months have been attributed to al-Qa'ida. One was a rocket launched at an Israeli town from across the Lebanese border and the other a rocket fired from Jordan that struck the airport at Eilat in the south. There were no casualties in either case. The chairman of the outgoing Knesset foreign affairs and defence committee, Yuval Steinitz, told Israel Radio yesterday the Israeli army might have to go back into the Gaza Strip to destroy weapons workshops said to have been set up there. "It's still in an initial phase," he said, "but it's worrisome." Israeli forces have stepped up reaction to the almost daily firing of rockets into Israel by artillery shelling close to populated Palestinian areas and firing missiles at a helicopter landing pad in Gaza City used by Mr Abbas. One Palestinian was killed and eight wounded, including a mother and her baby, by Israeli artillery fired on Tuesday at Bait Lahia in the northern strip. Until now, the Israeli artillery attacks on Palestinian areas were intended mainly as a deterrent. In recent days, however, Israeli military officers have indicated they will embark on a more aggressive strategy in view of the use of longer-range rockets, which threaten the coastal city of Ashkelon. An army spokesman said the artillery shells that caused the casualties in Bait Lahiya had been fired at a Palestinian launch site. "The terror organisations fire from civilian areas so the responsibility falls on them," he said. "The army regrets any innocent casualties but the Palestinians know where the rockets are being fired from and they know we will react." Posted by: Oztralian 2006-04-06 |
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