Important Events

A rocket attack on the IDF base at Zikim

Just before 2 a .m. on the morning of September 11 a rocket was launched from the region of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. It fell in the center of the basic training camp of Zikim, injuring 50 soldiers (four critically, seven moderately, and 39 slightly). Responsibility for the attack was jointly claimed by the PIJ and the Popular Resistance Committees, which also separately issued announcements claiming responsibility. ¹

Hamas spokesmen praised the rocket attack on Zikim :

•  Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said: “We bless the immaculate hands which carried out the blessed action, a natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation... Those who call the resistance terrorism should notice that the hands which bombarded the stronghold of the Israeli occupation hit the heart of the occupation and not civilians… ² If Allah so wishes, the [holy Muslim] month of Ramadan will be a month of many victories over the Israeli enemy” (Radio Sawt al-Quds, September 11).

•  Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: “This action is part of [our] legitimate resistance [and right] to combat Israel 's continuing aggression…The problem is the aggression and the occupation and not the resistance, which is self-defense (Agence France Presse, September 11).

•  On the other hand, Dr. Riyad al-Maliki , minister of information in Salam Fayyad's government, accused Hamas of responsibility for the rocket attacks against Israel . In a well-attended Fatah conference held in Bethlehem on September 11, he said that Hamas was trading on what it called “the legitimacy of the struggle” in an attempt to end its worsening isolation within the Palestinian population (PNN Website, September 12).

On September 6 another attempt by a joint PIJ-Fatah squad to carry out an attack on Israeli soil was foiled. The squad was composed of seven terrorist operatives who arrived in two vehicles which were discovered about 250 meters (about 275 yards ) from the security fence in the central Gaza Strip. IDF ground forces with air backup attacked the squad.

The remains of a vehicle used by the terrorist squad. It was loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives (Photo courtesy of the IDF Spokesman, September 6).

•  The terrorists' objective was to infiltrate into Israeli territory and attack an IDF post 10 kilometers (just over six miles) north of Kibbutz Kissufim, or, failing that, an IDF patrol, possibly with the intention of abducting an Israeli soldier. Six of the terrorists were killed and one managed to escape. The IDF found hundreds of kilograms of explosives on one of the vehicles, and a great quantity of weapons which had been in the terrorists' possession. ³

The Jerusalem Battalions and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade take responsibility: The face of the seventh terrorist operative, who managed to escape, has been deliberately blurred (Jerusalem Battalions Website, September 10).

Shooting attack near Karnei Shomron

An Israeli vehicle on the road between Karnei Shomron and Kedumim (west of Nablus ) was attacked in a drive-by shooting. Two Israeli civilians were slightly wounded by shrapnel and another went into shock. The shooters fled the scene (IDF Spokesman, September 14).

During the past two weeks rocket fire at the western Negev settlements continued, and 34 rocket hits were identified. The most prominent event was the hit on the IDF's basic training camp at Zikim. During the Jewish New Year (September 12-15) 12 rocket hits were identified in Israeli territory.

Left: Fatah/Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade operatives firing rockets (Al-Jazeera TV, September 12).
Right: Rockets launchers uncovered by IDF (Photo courtesy of the IDF Spokesman, September 5).

The PIJ continues carrying out the largest number of rocket attacks, along with smaller organizations in the Gaza Strip, sponsored by Hamas. Hamas , for its part, permits and even encourages the continued rocket fire.

Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades continues firing mortar shells at the Gaza Strip crossings and the area around the border security fence. During the first two weeks of September, 66 mortar shells were fired. Ismail Haniya's government called upon the various terrorist organizations not to fire at the crossings, especially during Ramadan, with the objective of “preserving the interest of the Palestinian people” (Pal-media Website, September 13). In effect, during the Jewish New Year (September 12-15) 20 mortar shells were fired at various targets near the security fence and at IDF forces operating in the Gaza Strip.

During the past two weeks Israeli security forces' counterterrorist activities continued in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria . Several attempted attacks were foiled, several dozen operatives suspected of terrorist activity were detained, weapons and dozens of explosive charges were collected and terrorist operatives on their way to launch rockets were attacked. The main events were as follows:

•  September 16: an IDF force in the southern Gaza Strip attacked a terrorist squad launching rockets into Israeli territory (IDF Spokesman, September 16).

•  September 13: the Israeli Air Force struck a civilian car in the northern Gaza Strip carrying four PIJ terrorist operatives, two of whom were seriously injured (Agence France Presse, September 13).

The vehicle the PIJ operatives were riding in.

•  September 12: a terrorist operative from the Gaza Strip wearing an explosive belt infiltrated into Israeli territory through the Egyptian border and was detained shortly thereafter. During interrogation he said that he had been sent by the PRC to carry out an attack in a crowded place in Beersheba (Walla news site, September 12).

•  September 9: in a series of air attacks two armed rocket launchers were struck east of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. A vehicle carrying five PIJ operatives was struck south of Gaza City .

•  September 8: IDF forces detained Muhawesh al-Qadi, a high-ranking Hamas operative in Rafah. According to media reports he was apparently involved in the abduction of Gilad Shalit in June 2006.

•  September 5: IDF forces uncovered 11 rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip aimed at Israel and ready for firing (IDF Spokesman, September 5).

Judea and Samaria

•  September 9: during security forces activity in the village of Al-Shawawra (east of Bethlehem ) a high-ranking PIJ operative and his collaborator were detained. The two belonged to a terrorist squad active in the area.

•  September 5: IDF force activity in the Kasbah in Nablus uncovered a large laboratory for the manufacture of explosives and side charges. During the mission an IDF vehicle went over a mine. Three soldiers were wounded, one moderately and two slightly.

•  September 4: during a security activity in Nablus , IDF forces detained Ahmad Yussuf Ahmad Awad , a high-ranking Hamas operative (IDF Spokesman, September 4).

Hamas announced that it had “reliable information from within occupied Palestine ” that the IDF was planning to carry out broad scope actions in the Gaza Strip in the coming days. They would include taking over the Philapelphi Route , which marks the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt , and the Rafah Crossing; occupying a number of neighborhoods in Gaza City and occupying the northern Gaza Strip from Beit Hanoun to the Jabaliya refugee camp (Palestine-info Website, September 12).

Therefore, Hamas-Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Abeida announced that a high alert had been declared to begin implementing a defense plan as soon as the IDF set foot in the Gaza Strip. He also threatened that the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades would abduct more soldiers if the IDF dared to invade the Gaza Strip (The Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades Website, September 13).

Statistical Data

Monthly distribution of attacks

Monthly distribution of identified rocket hits ⁴

Monthly distribution of Israeli casualties

On September 10 Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abu Mazen held another summit meeting in Jerusalem . The first part of the meeting was attended (for the first time) by the Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who presented the activities of his government and his expectations. Later Ehud Olmert and Abu Mazen met alone.

The meeting focused on the formulation of an agreement on principles which would be presented to the international conference in Washington in November. A decision was made to establish a joint political group to formulate an agreement on principles based on the vision of two countries living side by side in peace and security. It was also decided to set up Israeli-Palestinian government ministry work-groups to discuss bilateral issues which had to be dealt with (ecology, water, agriculture, etc.). Nimr Hamad, Abu Mazen's political advisor, said that despite differences, the agreement to appoint committees was a return to serious negotiations, for the first time since the Taba conference ⁵ (Al-Sharq al-Awsat, September 11).

Ehud Olmert promised the Palestinians to raise before the Israeli government a proposal to release 100 Fatah prisoners from Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip as a good-will gesture for Ramadan. Saeb Erikat, chairman of the PLO's negotiating department, told a press conference that the Palestinians had submitted a list of 16 road blocks which they wanted dismantled to facilitate freedom of movement between Jenin and Hebron . He said Ehud Olmert had told them that Ehud Barak, the Israeli minister of defense, was expected to present a list of road blocks which would be dismantled (Al-Jazeera TV, September 10).

In the past weeks the struggle between Hamas and Fatah has reached an intensity unprecedented since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. Fatah chose to use the tactics of mass-demonstrations and protests along with Friday prayers which took place outside the mosques (most of which are controlled by Hamas). Hamas, which called them “political prayers,” used force to suppress the protests, including firing live ammunition at demonstrators and arresting them.

Executive Force operatives preventing Fatah operatives from praying
(Al-Jazeera TV, September 7).

The current round of the struggle began with a mass demonstration and prayer on Friday, August 24. On the following Friday, August 31, there were similar demonstrations and prayers in Gaza City , Rafah and Khan Yunis. The climax came on September 7 when Fatah supporters held demonstrations and prayers in several sites in the northern Gaza Strip, ignoring Hamas threats. In the end, Fatah was forced to back down , fearing Hamas would carry out further repressive steps. Fatah and the PLO factions called for the Friday prayers of September 14 to be held inside the mosques and not outside (Qudsnet Website, September 12).

On September 7 Hamas' Executive Force brutally suppressed the demonstrations. Its operatives, armed with truncheons and guns, beat and detained a large number of worshippers. Several dozen demonstrators were wounded, some of them by Executive Force bullets. Among those detained were several high-ranking Fatah members, including Ibrahim Abu al-Hija (a member of Fatah's revolutionary council) and Zakaria al-Agha (chairman of Fatah's steering committee in the Gaza Strip) (Pal-media Website, September 7). The daily newspaper Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda reported that one of the detainees was fined 1000 shekels for praying in the open air (Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, September 2).

Hamas used other methods beyond brutal force to suppress protest :

•  Political decision : the government decided to forbid prayers in public places: at its September 4 meeting, Ismail Haniya's government decided to forbid Friday prayers in public places, which it refers to as “political prayers.” It claimed that the prayers were being used to further anarchy and civil war, and were detrimental to public order.

•  Threats : Hamas used the Internet to warn Gaza Strip residents not to go to prayers, saying “Do not be dragged behind those who are corrupt. Tomorrow will not bring truncheons, tomorrow will bring death” (Palpress Website, September 6). SMS and email messages were also sent, reading: “To the sons of Fatah: We advise you to save your lives. The [Izzedine] al-Qassam [Brigades] headquarters has issued unequivocal orders to its men to use extreme violence, to fire at people's legs and to kill…” (Firas Website, September 6).

•  A fatwa (an Islamic religious edict) providing Islamic authorization to forbid prayers and suppress demonstrations : the Website of the Association of Palestine Scholars, headed by Marwan Abu Ras (affiliated with Hamas) issued a fatwa concerning Friday prayers held in the open air. It stated that if the prayer's objective was destructive and political, it was forbidden by religious law, and anyone who took part in such a prayer was committing a sin against Islamic law . In addition, the dispersal of such prayers was a religious duty (Website of the Association of Palestine Scholars, September 4). The minister of religious endowments in Ismail Haniya's government issued a announcement providing a religious Islamic basis for the prohibition of the Friday prayers held by Fatah. ⁶

Following the confrontations, Fatah and other organizations within the PLO announced a general strike in the Gaza Strip on September 9 to protest Hamas repression . Fatah and the PA's media reported that the strike was very successful despite Executive Force threats against businessmen. On the other hand, elements affiliated with Hamas claimed that the strike had not achieved its goals.

Abu Mazen and Fatah responded as follows to the suppression of the demonstrations and prayers:

•  Abu Mazen told a press conference on September 7 that the Gaza Strip was going through a period of darkness which would not last long because the rebels had dug their graves with their own hands. He described the events which occurred during the prayers in the Gaza Strip as a another link in the chain of crimes carried out by Hamas against the Palestinian people (Al-Jazeera TV, September 7).

•  The minister of information in Salam Fayyad's government described the demonstrations and prayers as the third intifada, this time against Hamas tyranny and the occupation of the Gaza Strip. He called the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip a replacement for the Israeli occupation, and called upon the residents of the Gaza Strip to continue the intifada, since the day of Fatah's return, he said, was not far off (Al-Jazeera TV, September 7).

•  Ahmad Abd al-Rahman , Fatah spokesman , said that on the past few Fridays the whole world had seen how people had left the mosques because the sermons called for civil war. He added that the Palestinian people would not give up and would use any means to reverse Hamas' coup (The Voice of Palestine Radio, September 5).

At the tension worsens on the ground, the power struggles between Salam Fayyad's government and Ismail Haniya's Hamas government continue :

•  The Hamas government announced its intention to appoint new judges in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to rehabilitate the legal system, which has disintegrated. Behind the step is the lack of judges in the Gaza Strip, following the refusal of many of them to return to work under Haniya's government.

•  The ministry of health of the Hamas government warned that the health system in the Gaza Strip was about to collapse as a result of the “political strikes” which Fatah initiated and because thousands of health workers had not received their salaries (Filastin al-‘An Website, September 10). On the other hand, the ministry of health of Salam Fayyad's government announced that since Hamas had taken over the Gaza Strip, 72 health workers had been detained, 86 had been beaten and 575 had been fired or received threats from Hamas sources (Firas, September 10).

•  Salam Fayyad's government announced an allotment of $12 million to needy families, to be distributed during Ramadan. Fifty-four percent of the eligible families live in the Gaza Strip . Each family will receive $100 from the county governors or banks (Wafa News Agency, September 10).

•  Jamal Bawatna, minister of Islamic endowments in Salam Fayyad's government , warned the preachers in the mosques not to exploit the month of Ramadan to accuse people of heresy and treason, or to ignite civil wars. He said that preachers and imams who did not obey the ministry of endowments' instructions would be fired or forced to retire.

The mosque as a focus for terrorism and incitement: weapons, uniforms and propaganda belonging to Hamas, confiscated by the Palestinian security forces in a mosque in Nablus (Palestinian TV, September 12).

¹ For further information see our September 11, 2007 Bulletin entitled “A rocket fired at the northern Negev on the night of September 10 hit the IDF base at Zikim, wounding 50 soldiers.

² The rocket hit the military base at Zikim by chance. In most instances, the rocket fire is aimed at population centers in the western Negev, mainly the town of Sderot .

³ For further information see our September 10, 2007 Bulletin entitled “Yet another attempt to infiltrate Israel from the Gaza Strip .

⁴ During the first two weeks of September 66 mortar shells were also fired.

⁵ In January 2001 a conference was held in Taba to discuss the Clinton proposal for continuation of the negotiations to reach a peaceful settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

⁶ On the other hand, clerics affiliated with Abu Mazen issued fatwas authorizing the prayers. For example, Taysir al-Tamimi, a judge in the high Sharia' court determined that according to Islamic religious law prayers could be held anywhere, and noted that a fatwa forbidding them was contrary to Islam and was treason and heresy (The Voice of Palestine, September 3). Muhammad Hussein, the Mufti of Jerusalem, said that there was no religious law forbidding holding Friday prayers outside mosques and added that the prophet Muhammad himself had prayed outside (Al-Quds, September 6).