News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (February 6-12, 2013)

Rocket Fire

• Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to implement the understandings reached at the end of Operation Pillar of Defense. Since 2300 hours on November 21 no rockets or mortar shells hit Israeli territory.

The Situation on the Ground

• On the morning of February 10, 2013, a 20-year old Palestinian man was apprehended trying to infiltrate into Israeli territory. He was caught digging under the security fence near one the villages lying close to the northern Gaza Strip. One of the village's residents, who was passing by at the time, detained him and alerted the Israeli security forces. An initial investigation showed that Palestinian was unarmed and was not planning a terrorist attack. He may have been on a reconnaissance mission to acquire information about IDF activities and deployment near the security fence (Ynet, February 10, 2013).

Violence Continues

• This past week friction and violence continued in various locations in Judea and Samaria between Palestinians on the one hand and Israeli security forces and settlers on the other. IDF forces continued to detain Palestinian terrorist operatives (IDF spokesman, February 7, 2013).

Indictment of Two Palestinians Who Shot at an IDF Base

• Two Palestinians were indicted in a military court in Judea for shooting at an Israeli army base in Samaria during Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012). Using a rifle, they fired an estimated 30 bullets at the base. A number of them hit the base and some penetrated offices where soldiers were located. The initial investigation indicated that the attack had been planned and carried out with the help of Zakaria Zubeidi,^[3] who gave the terrorist operatives both the weapon and a vehicle (IDF spokesman, date, 2013).

Solidarity with Terrorist Operatives Imprisoned in Israel

• This past week activities were held in the Gaza Strip to show solidarity with Palestinian terrorist operatives imprisoned in Israeli jails, especially those on hunger strikes. In one such activity Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operatives erected a solidarity tent near the Erez crossing. In attendance were senior PIJ figures, who called for the release of the imprisoned terrorists (Ma'an News Agency, February 5, 2013). The location of the tent was chosen to attract the attention of foreign nationals entering the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing.
• Among those present were Palestinians who called for the abduction of Israeli soldiers: Ahmed al-Mudallal, senior PIJ figure interviewed at the tent, said that Israeli soldiers should be abducted and exchanged for Palestinian prisoners (Ma'an News Agency, February 5, 2013). Rawhi Mushtaha, a member of Hamas' political bureau and one of the terrorists released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, said that Hamas' end goal was the release of all the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and that it would be accomplished through the abduction of [Israeli] soldiers. He said abducting soldiers was an option which was still valid and that Hamas sought to use it (Shihab website, February 10, 2013). Khaled Abu Riala, a Hamas terrorist operative from Gaza who was released from an Israeli jail last week after serving a 20-year sentence, called on the military-terrorist wings of all the organizations to increase their efforts to abduct [Israeli] soldiers and exchange them for Palestinian prisoners (Hamas' Felesteen, February 11, 2013).
• On February 7, 2013, Israel released Hamas terrorist operative Akram Rikhawi after a 120-day hunger strike and nine years of a sentence served. He was taken to the Gaza Strip. After his release, Abdallah Abu al-Sabah, minister of prisoner affairs in the de-facto Hamas administration, called his release a victory achieved by virtue of Rikhawi's "firm stance," which was, he said, an example for all the prisoners (Safa News Agency, February 6, 2013).

Interview with Khaled Mashaal

• Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas' Executive Committee, was interviewed by the BBC in English on February 7, 2013, and spoke about the following subjects:

• Operation Pillar of Defense– Khaled Mashaal admitted that Hamas had not won a clear, crushing victory over Israel, but Operation Pillar of Defense was still an important milestone. Despite the fact that Israel started the war, he claimed that the response of the Palestinian organizations and their military capabilities came as a surprise to Israel. Another achievement, he claimed, was that the fighting ended only after Israel agreed to the demands of the "resistance" [i.e., terrorist organizations].
• A solution to the conflict– Khaled Mashaal denied the report that at a meeting with King Abdallah of Jordan he said he was prepared to accept the two state solution. He said Hamas had never expressed its agreement to such a solution.
• Hamas and Iran– Khaled Mashaal criticized Iran's relations with Syria and Bashar Assad, but nevertheless stressed that Hamas did not intend to cut off relations with Iran. As to where Hamas would acquire weapons if Iran stopped supplying them, he said that by now Hamas had amassed a great deal of expertise, including the ability to manufacture weapons itself, and did not have to rely on one source for the weapons it wanted.

Two PIJ Operatives Wounded

• Two operatives belonging to the PIJ's military-terrorist wing were seriously wounded when an IED exploded in the region of Khan Yunis (southern Gaza Strip). According to reports in the Palestinian media, the two were engaged in what was referred to as "jihad activity" (PalPress website, February 8, 2013).

• In continuation of the contacts for a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation, the reorganization committee met in Cairo on February 8-9, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman; Khaled Mashaal, chairman of Hamas' Executive Committee; Salim al-Zaanoun, chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC); senior Palestinian terrorist organization members and members of the PLO's Executive Committee. They discussed enacting a law in the PNC and other political and internal Palestinian issues (Filastin al-Yawm, February 9, 2013).
• After two days of deliberations the meeting ended without significant decisions regarding the reconciliation (according to Palestinian sources, Mahmoud Abbas did not attend the second day of deliberations) (Filastin al-Yawm, February 9, 2013). The final announcement issued by the committee emphasized, among other things, the need for general elections and PNC elections on a date which had yet to be set and the need to begin contacts for the establishment of an interim government (Filastin al-Yawm, February 9, 2013). The committee also decided to send a Palestinian delegation to Damascus to discuss the situation of the Palestinian refugees in Syria.
• Sources in Hamas also claimed that during the meetings Mahmoud Abbas stubbornly condemned the "armed struggle" and demanded recognition for the so-called "popular resistance" as the only way to restore Palestinian rights. Hamas and the other terrorist organizations, however, demanded it be specified that all forms of the [so-called] "resistance" would bring victory (Shihab website, February 11, 2013).

Meeting of the reorganization committee headed by Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal in Cairo (Wafa News Agency, February 8, 2013).

PA Security Services Take Action against Hamas

• Despite the reconciliation talks, Hamas and the PA continue mutual political detentions. In one instance, the PA's security services detained operatives belonging to a Hamas netwoek in Ramallah. The members of the 25-man network were found to have weapons in their possession (Agence France-Presse, February 7, 2013).
• However, at the same time sources in Fatah blamed the security services of Hamas' ministry of the interior for detaining Fatah activist Ghassan Abu Salim, who had returned to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing. That was after Hamas had recently permitted him to return to the Gaza Strip as part of an amnesty granted by the de-facto Hamas administration to Fatah activists who had fled the Gaza Strip after Hamas took it over in June 2007 (PalPress website, February 8, 2013).

Erecting Another Outpost South of Hebron

• On February 9, 2013, Palestinians accompanied by foreign activists erected a new Palestinian outpost, this one called Kafr Knaan.^[4] The outpost was erected east of Yata (south of Hebron). The Palestinian media reported that preparations for erecting the outpost had been finished last week. Initially the intention was to erect it in the region of Hawara (near Nablus) but the plan was changed because of the massive presence of Israeli security forces at the site. When the activists arrived at the location they began erecting the main tent, but as soon as they finished it was taken down by Israeli security forces, who declared the site a closed military area. Yusuf Abu Maria, spokesman for the popular committee of Bayt Umar, said that the IDF forces had hurt a number of activists as well as three correspondents, and that ten activists had been detained, four of them foreign nationals (Ma'an News Agency, the Alresala.net website, and Quds News, February 9, 2013).

The outpost at Kafr Knaan (The qassam.ps website, February 11. 2013)

• Mazen Qumsia, spokesman for the outpost and a BDS^[5] activist, said the activists had erected the tent in support of the residents of Yata whose lands had been appropriated, and that other outposts would be erected at various locations (Palestinian TV, February 10, 2013). Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum appealed to the residents of Judea and Samaria to continue their efforts to confront Israel and to continue the "resistance's plan to "liberate" all the Palestinian territories (Fawzi Barhoum's Facebook page).

Shawan Jabarin, Terrorist Operative and Human Rights Activist, Visits France

• On February 1, 2013, Shawan Jabarin, who heads a Palestinian human rights organization called Al-Hak,^[6] paid a visit to France. Jabarin was prevented by the Israeli legal authorities from leaving for abroad for many years. His trip was part of a campaign he and his organization are waging against Israel's administrative detentions. During the visit he met with French diplomats and members of the French Parliament. Interviewed in Arabic by the French TV channel France 24, he spoke about a number of issues raised during the meetings he attended (France 24, February 1, 2013):

• Palestine's membership in the International Criminal Court(ICC) – Jabarin complained that while every European country that wanted to join the European Union was also required to join the ICC, Palestine was not allowed to join. That meant, he said, that despite the fact that the Palestinians suffered from a "violation of their rights" and "crimes," the ICC could not provide them with a defense. He demanded that the French support Palestinian membership in the ICC, or at least not oppose it.
• Boycotting Israeli goods– Jabarin claimed that according to international law, goods manufactured in the settlements could not be marketed because that encouraged what he called the "crime of the settlements."
• Administrative detentions– Jabarin claimed that members of the French Parliament had promised him they would relay the matter of administrative detentions to the French foreign minister so that he could exert pressure on Israel to stop them and to release the imprisoned members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
• The place of France, according to Jabarin, in the negotiations – Any political process in which France was involved had to be based on international law and not on the principle of direct negotiations. Jabarin asked France to turn words into action and impose sanctions on Israel.

• Shawan Rateb Abdallah Jabarinwas born in the village of Sayeir, in the Hebron district, in 1960. He began his activity in Al-Hak in 2006 as a field worker and since then has been its General Director. As of February 2011 he has also served as an advisor to Human Rights Watch. He was an operative in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Notorious terrorist organization founded by George Habash which has been involved in international terrorism, including plane hijackings and mass murder attacks. As a student at Beir Zeit University he belonged to a PFLP student cell. He was later involved in recruiting operatives for military-terrorist training outside Israel, for which he was imprisoned in Israel for nine months.

The Gaza Ark Campaign

• One of the Gaza Ark activists, an Australian named Michael Coleman, recently arrived in the Gaza Strip. He is supposed to stay there for a number of weeks, during which, along with Palestinian activists, he will help overhaul the boat which will be used in the Gaza Ark campaign. The campaign is an attempt to launch a boat with a cargo of merchandise from the Gaza Strip to defy the so-called Israeli "siege" (Gaza Ark website, February 3, 2013). Coleman participated in a previous flotilla, which was halted in Greece and did not reach the Gaza Strip. He was also one of the activists aboard the coat called Tahrir which tried to sail to the Gaza Strip in November 2011.