News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (November 19 – 25, 2014)

Rocket and Mortal Shell Fire into Israel

• This past week no rocket or mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory.

Incidents on the Gaza Strip Border

• Before dawn on November 23, 2014, an IDF force apprehended a Palestinian near the border of the southern Gaza Strip who was carrying a fragmentation grenade. A Palestinian accompanying him was also apprehended. The two were taken for interrogation. Several hours later a Palestinian was killed by IDF fire near the Gaza border north of the Jabaliya refugee camp. According to security forces two Palestinians approached the security fence, were identified by an IDF force and ordered to distance themselves. When they did not the force opened fire (Ynetnews.co.il, November 23, 2014).
• The Palestinian media reported that Muhammad Halawa had been killed by IDF fire east of Jabaliya. The media claimed he was shot while "trying to catch birds." The Palestinian and Arab media reported he was the first Palestinian killed in the Gaza Strip since the end of Operation Protective Edge (Alrai.com and Alresala.net, November 23, 2014). Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said it was a gross violation of the lull agreement and called on the international community to take responsibility (Alresala.net, November 23, 2014) 

Violent Events in Jerusalem

• This past week the wave of riots and violence continued in the neighborhoods of east Jerusalem, part of what the Palestinians refer to as the "popular resistance." The violence was also a manifestation of Palestinian solidarity with Al-Aqsa mosque. Dozens of Palestinians throughout Judea and Samaria heeded Hamas' calls for marches. There were demonstrations in Hebron and Ramallah, and a riot in the Qalandia refugee camp where rioters clashed with Israeli security forces.

• In Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem Palestinians continued throwing stones, rocks and Molotov cocktails, and there were also stabbing attacks on Israeli civilians. The most prominent events were the following:

• November 24, 2014 – There was a double stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem. A 45 year-old Israel man was stabbed in the chest with a knife; he said Arabs had attacked him. Another man sustained minor injuries. Investigation revealed that the two, who had left their yeshiva, were attacked by four Palestinians, who stabbed them with sharp instruments and fled. The Israeli security forces conducted a search and detained four young Palestinians from the Old City of Jerusalem (Facebook page of the Israel Police Force, November 25, 2014).
• November 24, 2014 – A civilian and a policeman sustained minor injuries when they were hit by a vehicle in the region of the Adam Square in Benjamin (Samaria). The attack took place when Israeli security forces stopped the vehicle for inspection. The driver drove forward and hit the civilian, who was riding a motorcycle, and the policeman. The vehicle was found abandoned several hundred meters from the site of the attack. Investigation revealed that the car had been stolen (Ynetnews.co.il, November 24, 2014).
• November 22, 2014 – An improvised pipe bomb was thrown at Israeli security forces on the road near Shuafat (east Jerusalem). A resident of east Jerusalem sustained minor injuries (Ynetnews.co.il, November 22, 2014).
• November 21, 2014 – During a riot two Palestinians set fire to a police post near a public square in Hebron. There were no casualties. The post was damaged (Tazpit.org.il, November 21, 2014).

Statements from Senior Palestinian Figures about the Violence

• Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah figures claimed Israel was responsible for the violence and warned the situation would turn into a religious war:

• Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said that Fatah's Central Committee had discussed the escalation and increase in violence in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem resulting from the Israeli government's "settlement policy." He claimed that to prevent the situation from deteriorating the Israeli government had to put a stop to its activities against the Palestinian people, their land and holy sites, especially in Jerusalem.
• Fatah's Central Committee called on the relevant parties, especially the American administration, to intervene before it was too late. He also called on the Arab and other friendly states to support and assist the Palestinian demand to restore the Palestinians' national, natural and legitimate rights and to end the occupation (Wafa.ps, November 20, 2014).
• Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, claimed that since the murder of Abu Khdeir there were clashes in Jerusalem that escalated on a daily basis. He claimed that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and his policies, in addition to the harm caused by the Israeli settlers, had incited the residents of [east] Jerusalem to act as they had (Palestinian TV, November 20, 2014).
• In his Friday sermon, Mahmoud al-Habash, a high sharia court judge and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor for religious matters, warned of a religious war that would spread to the entire world if Israel pursued its current policies and continued violating Al-Aqsa mosque (Voice of Palestine Radio, November 21, 2014).

• Calls continue and notices are posted, especially on forums and Facebook pages affiliated with Hamas (PALDF, PALINFO and the Facebook pages of the Islamic Bloc at universities throughout Judea and Samaria), inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis. Most of the notices are signed by the Hamas campaign for Al-Aqsa mosque with the slogan "At your orders, oh Al-Aqsa."

Upper left: The so-called "forensic report." The toe tags indicate how the Israelis were killed and the weapon used: "stabbed with a dagger," "hacked with a meat cleaver," "run over by a car." Bottom left: The "State of Palestine" (symbolized by a map) used as a hammer to kill a snake with a Star of David, symbolizing the Jews and the State of Israel. Right: Al-Aqsa mosque chokes an ultra-Orthodox Jew (PALDF, November 22, 2014).

Exposure of Terrorist Squad Planning to Assassinate Israeli Minister

• The Israel Security Agency recently exposed a terrorist squad planning to assassinate Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Shabak.gov.il November 20, 2014).

• The squad members belonged to Hamas and came from villages near Bethlehem. All of them had previously served sentences in Israeli jails. The squad was headed by Ibrahim Salim Mahmoud Zir, 37, a senior Hamas operative from the village of Harmalah, south of Bethlehem, who had been imprisoned in Israel a number of times for Hamas military-terrorist activities.
• Planning the attack was done during Operation Protective Edge. Ibrahim Salim Mahmoud Zir devised a plan to attack the foreign minister's motorcade. To that end he enlisted three additional Hamas operatives, asking one to acquire an RPG launcher. In the meantime the squad members gathered information about the minister's motorcade.
• Another squad planning attacks was exposed. In the wake of the interrogation of Ibrahim Zir's squad, another squad of Hamas terrorist operatives was uncovered. They planned to carry out shooting and vehicular attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers in the Etzion Bloc (south of Jerusalem).

• Senior Hamas figures refused to confirm the information about the squad that had been exposed. Ismail Haniya, deputy chairman of Hamas' political bureau, claimed he had no information about the squad and that Israel was the source of the report (Nile TV, November 21, 2014). Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri claimed Hamas had no information about the matter, but added that Israel's leaders were responsible for the deaths of women and children and were legitimate targets for the "resistance" [i.e., the terrorist organizations] (Reuters.com, November 21, 2014).

Vehicular Attack in Gush Etzion (south of Jerusalem)

• The interrogation of Hamas operative Humam Jamal Badawi al-Masalma, 23, from the village of Beit 'Awwa (west of Hebron), revealed that the attack in which he was involved was a planned vehicular terrorist attack. It was carried out on November 5, 2014 at the Aroub junction, near Gush Etzion, and wounded three IDF soldiers. Al-Masalma confessed to attacking the soldiers with his car after having been inspired by the vehicular attack in Jerusalem the same day. He also confessed to planning other attacks (Shabak.gov.il November 19, 2014).
• Note: At approximately 2200 hours on November 5, 2014 a vehicle hit a group of soldiers standing at the Aroub junction (south of Bethlehem). One soldier was critically injured and two were seriously injured. IDF forces searched the area and found the vehicle abandoned in the village of Al-Aroub, but the driver had fled. On the afternoon of November 6, 2014, the driver turned himself in to the Israeli security forces, initially claiming it had been a traffic accident, not an attack (Ynetnews.co.il, November 6, 2014).

Shipment of Cold Weapons Discovered

• The Israel Customs and Tax Authority, working in collaboration with the Israel Police Force and following intelligence information, seized two containers of equipment in the port of Ashdod which held including pyrotechnical devices such as powerful detonators and fireworks, and cold weapons such as commando knives, brass knuckles, spikes and electric shockers. The containers, which came from China, were marked as carrying Christmas decorations and were consigned to residents of Beit Hanina, a neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
• The weapons found included 5,200 commando knives, 4,300 electric shockers concealed in flashlights, 5,500 Tasers, 1,000 swords, hundreds of thousands of detonators and 18,000 fireworks. Fireworks have recently been shot directly at Israeli security forces during riots in east Jerusalem and other locations (Spokesmen for the Jerusalem Police Department and the Customs Authority, November 20, 2014).

The containers and some of the cold weapons seized (Israel Police Force spokesperson, November 20, 2014).

House of Vehicular Terrorist Destroyed

• On the night of November 18, 2014, in accordance with instructions from the Israeli political leadership and as part of the struggle against terrorism, the Israeli security forces destroyed the house of Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudi in the Silwan network of east Jerusalem. Abd Al-Rahman al-Shaloudi carried out the vehicular attack in Jerusalem at the Ammunition Hill light railway station at the end of October 2014. The attack killed a three month-old infant and a young woman, and wounded five people (IDF Spokesman, November 19, 2014).

The terrorist operative Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudi's house after it had been destroyed (Facebook page of Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudi, November 19, 2014).

PFLP Claims Responsibility for the Attack on the Jerusalem Synagogue

• Twenty-four hours after the terrorist attack on the synagogue in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof in which five people were murdered, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) issued an official statement claiming that the two terrorist operatives who carried out the attack belonged to its military wing. In addition, according to the statement, the attack was "a natural reaction to the crimes of the occupation" and that "a future intifada is a certainty" (PFLP.ps, November 19, 2014). Note: After the terrorist attack the PFLP's military-terrorist wing claimed the two terrorist operatives belonged to the organization, but recanted several hours later.^[3]

Left: The notice issued by the PFLP's military-terrorist wing, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, after the terrorist attack in the synagogue. Upper left, the Arabic reads, "Ghassan and Uday [the two terrorists who carried out the mass-killing attack in the synagogue in Jerusalem], an extraordinary story that worked miracles." Lower left, the Arabic reads, "Woe to the Zionists. In every place and with every means we will reap your souls" (Facebook page of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, November 19, 2014). Right: The official PFLP obituary (Facebook page of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, November 19, 2014)

The Rafah Crossing

• The Rafah crossing has been closed since October 24, 2014 (the day the Egyptian jihadi terrorist organization Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis carried out a terrorist attack killing 33 Egyptian soldiers). Egyptian sources reported there was dissatisfaction within the PA in the wake of Egypt's refusal to allow the crossing to be opened. According to the sources, the Egyptian regime rejected dozens of PA requests regarding the matter. The sources estimated that there were approximately 2,5000 Palestinians who could not enter the Gaza Strip and one thousand stranded in other countries (Samanews.com, November 23, 2014).
• The interior ministry in the Gaza Strip said in a formal announcement that Egypt's continued closing of the Rafah crossing was a gross violation of the rights of two million people, and turned the Gaza Strip into a "mass prison." According to the announcement, today 30,000 people with humanitarian issues were waiting in the Gaza Strip to leave for Egypt through the crossing, and 6,000 people were waiting on the Egyptian side to enter (Facebook page of the interior ministry in the Gaza Strip, November 20, 2014).
• Musa Abu Marzouq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, claimed that life had completely stopped in the Gaza Strip because of the closing of the Rafah crossing. He warned that the Strip was very close to exploding because of the pressure of its inhabitants (Shorouknews.com, November 19, 2014). Activists from the Islamic Bloc, Hamas' student faction in Rafah, held a demonstration at the Rafah crossing to protest its continued closure (Paltimes.net, November 23, 2014).

Rebuilding the Gaza Strip

• Protests continue in the Gaza Strip because its rebuilding is proceeding slowly. Dozens of homeless women held a demonstration in front of UNRWA headquarters and called on Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian national consensus government and the UN to accelerate the rebuilding, warning of a "regional explosion" (Safa.ps, November 19, 2014). Gazan women also held demonstration at Ikhza'a sponsored by the Democratic Front (DFLP), during which they called on the national consensus government to take leadership of the situation and advance the rebuilding (Maannews.net, November 23, 2014).
• According to statements made by senior PA figures and UN representatives, some progress is being made:

• Mufeed Al-Hasayneh, minister of public works and housing in the national consensus government, held a press conference where he announced the completion of the first stage of rebuilding the Gaza Strip: monitoring damages done to houses. He claimed his ministry workers, together with the UN's Development Programme (UNDP), had visited 93% of the civilian houses that had been destroyed. He claimed 77,000 families whose houses had been destroyed had been visited, out of a total of 88,000 listed by UNRWA (Alresala.net, November 20, 2014). On another occasion he said that in the coming weeks necessary building materials would enter the Gaza Strip. He added that Israel's agreement to deliver 14,000 tons of road construction materials made the issue of rebuilding optimistic and that Qatar's intention to transfer funds would also greatly help in accelerating the process (Paltimes.net, November 24, 2014)    
• Rami Hamdallah, prime minister of the Palestinian national consensus government, said that Abdallah bin Nasser al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, had promised him the government of Qatar would provide an additional $200 million worth of support for rebuilding the Gaza Strip (Al-ayyam.com, November 23, 2014).
• Robert Serry, the UN's special envoy to the peace process, said an understanding had been reached by the Palestinians, Israel and the UN to allow 25,000 home owners in the Gaza Strip access to building materials, with UN oversight (UNESCO website, November 21, 2014).

• Osama Hamdan, responsible for Hamas' external relations, claimed Hamas did not want a renewal of the fighting and sought, at this stage, to prevent aggression against the Gaza Strip. However, he claimed, the "resistance" [i.e., the terrorist organizations] would have the last word unless the situation changed. He said that Hamas was opposed to the oversight mechanism and would act to overthrow it (Alresala.net, November 22, 2014).

Concern over Decrease in the Ongoing Security Force Activities

• Mahmoud Shahin, CEO of supplies and equipment in the ministry of the interior in the Gaza Strip, warned that the lack of fuel and the fact that there was no budget were liable to have a negative effect on the activities of the security forces in the Gaza Strip and to reduce the scope of their activities in the near future (Facebook page of the ministry of the interior in the Gaza Strip, November 19, 2014). At the same time, the national security apparatus in the Gaza Strip issued pictures documenting the eighth officers' training course currently being held at a number of facilities in the Gaza Strip (Website of the national security apparatus, November 21, 2014).

Hamas-Egypt Tension Continues

• Tense relations continue between Hamas and Egypt because of the Egyptian accusation that Hamas is involved in the terrorist campaign in the Sinai Peninsula. On November 22, 2014, an Egyptian court in Cairo decided to deliberate designating Hamas' military wing as a terrorist organization. In response, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum wrote on his Facebook page that taking legal action against the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the smear campaign being waged in the Egyptian media were a continuation of a series of acts directed against the "Palestinian resistance" [i.e., terrorist organizations], especially against Hamas' military wing (Facebook page of Fawzi Barhoum, November 22, 2014).
• The tension with Egypt led senior Hamas figure Salah al-Bardawil to state that there had recently been serious setbacks for many issues linked to the lull agreement signed with Egyptian sponsorship. That, he claimed, was because of the media campaign Egypt was waging against Hamas and the Egyptian judicial system which wanted to outlaw the movement. He also claimed Egypt had abandoned its involvement in the issues of the prisoners [in Israeli jails], the so-called political detentions [i.e., the detentions carried out by the PA] and the construction of sea and air ports (Palestine-info.info, November 23, 2014).
• Egypt's activities to create a buffer zone along the Gaza Strip border continue. Egyptian sources reported that Egyptian border guard forces cleared a strip 13 kilometers long (the full length of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip) and 500 meters wide. According to the sources, that entailed evacuating and destroying 800 buildings. The Egyptian authorities plan to dig a channel along the border and fill it with water to keep tunnels from being build (Maannews.net, November 22, 2014). It was recently reported that after the area had been cleared the Egyptian army's engineering corps visited the site to determine the points where the channel would be dug. According to the plan, it will be 40-50 meters deep and 20 meters wide (Alquds.co.uk, November 21, 2014).

Information Exposed about the Gaza Strip Smuggling System

• "Suleiman," a tunnel smuggler in the Sinai Peninsula, gave an interview in which he exposed details about how weapons were smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. He said weapons smuggling began to flourish in 2007, while Hosni Mubarak was still president of Egypt. Today, he said, he estimated there were about 3,000 tunnels. Generally speaking they were dug in houses of families along the Gaza Strip border in Rafah who had relatives in both Egyptian and Gazan Rafah. He added that there were houses from which several tunnels had been dug.
• "Suleiman" also claimed that Hamas was responsible for everything concerning the tunnels and decided where they would be built, how they would be financed, who would build them, what kind of merchandise would be smuggled, etc. He stated that Hamas had full control of all the tunnels and that in times of crisis Hamas would hide its operatives in them. He said there were three types of tunnels for the three types of merchandise smuggled in. He also claimed there were "special tunnels" [apparently those used for military-terrorist purposes] that no one knew anything about (Al-Watan.com, November 11, 2014).

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)

• The information bureau of the Jerusalem Brigades, the PIJ's military-terrorist wing, said in a statement that its recruiting unit had established its first battalion, called the Fajr ("dawn") [Battalion], in a festive ceremony which included a military display. Abu Mahmoud, a senior Jerusalem Brigades operative, said that the objective of the unit was to recruit fighters who would be able, after training, to join the organization's military wing and operate in its ranks (Saraya.ps, November 20, 2014).
• Note: After Operation Protective Edge Hamas also increased its recruiting activities. On November 7, 2014, Hamas military-terrorist wing in the northern Gaza Strip displayed the first brigade of what it called its "popular army" in a festive ceremony held for graduates of the first course (PALDF, PALINFO, Paltimes.net, Al-Aqsa TV, November 7, 2014).^[4]

Rally in Memory of a Hamas Operative

On November 22, 2014, Hamas held a memorial rally in eastern Gaza City for Muamar Faisal Shamali, the commander of an elite Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades unit [called al-nukhba]. He was killed in Operation Protective Edge on July 20, 2014, in the fighting in the Shejaiya neighborhood, and his body was found on August 1, 2014. The rally was attended by senior Hamas figures and Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operatives, as well as family members and neighborhood residents (Paltimes.net, November 22, 2014; PCHRgaza.org, August 1, 2014; Facebook page of the Shejaiya information network, November 23, 2014).

Left: The mourning notice issued by Hamas. Right: The stage for the rally held in eastern Gaza City (Facebook page of the Shejaiya information network, November 23, 2014).

Gazan Police Commander Returns to Duty after Being Wounded in Operation Protective Edge

• On November 22, 2014, a reception was held in police headquarters in Gaza City for Taysir al-Batash, commander of the police force in the Gaza Strip, who returned to duty. Taysir al-Batash was critically wounded in an attack on his house in eastern Gaza City during Operation Protective Edge. The reception was attended by the heads of departments and other senior police figures (Website of the Gaza police force, November 22, 2014).

Arab Israelis Enlist in ISIS

• On November 24, 2014, the Israeli security forces at Ben-Gurion international airport detained Hamza Sami Sari Magamsa, 22, from Yafia (near Nazareth) as he returned from Syria. During interrogation he admitted that on October 5, 2014, he and three friends humanitarian had gone to Turkey. He and two of them decided to go from there to Syria and join the fighting in the ranks of ISIS. They crossed the border and presented themselves at an ISIS base where they were recruited into its ranks. They were transferred to a training camp where they were taught how to operate weapons and underwent physical fitness training. At the camp they met Mahran Yussuf Khaldi, from Nazareth, who had left a number of days before they did and joined the organization. After ten days in the training camp Hamza Sami Sari Magamsa decided to return to his family (Shabak.gov.il November 24, 2014).
• Israeli Arabs began enlisting in the ranks of the Syrian rebels in November 2012. In early 2014 their estimated number was less than 20.^[5] Since then more have joined (as happened in countries in Western Europe} and today their number is estimated at 40. Four of them are known to have been killed in battle. Some of them returned to Israel and were brought to trial.

ISIS Graffiti

• On November 22, 2014 in the Druze village of Daliat al-Carmel near Haifa, ISIS graffiti were sprayed on the monument commemorating Druze soldiers who fell in battle. Other graffiti were sprayed on a directional sign on a path near the village. It was the third instance of ISIS graffiti in Daliat al-Carmel in recent weeks. Additional graffiti were found in the nearby village of Isfiya (Ynetnews.co.il, November 22, 2014).

The ISIS graffiti in Daliat al-Carmel (Israel Police Force, November 22, 2014)