News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (January 7 – 13, 2015)

Rocket Fire Attacking Israel

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

Clashes on the Gaza Strip Border

• This past week clashes continued along the border security fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. On January 11, 2015, an IDF force opened fire at a suspicious Palestinian who approached the security fence near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Palestinian retreated and returned to the Gaza Strip (Facebook page of Red Alert, January 22, 2015).

Young Jewish Man Stabbed at the Nablus Gate

• On January 8, 2015, near the Nablus Gate in Jerusalem, a young yeshiva student was stabbed in the back with a screwdriver. His attacker fled the scene. He was seriously but not critically injured. Following the attack a 15 year-old from east Jerusalem was detained on suspicion of having carried out the attack (Facebook page of the Israel Police Force, January 9, 2015)
• After the attack Hamas-affiliated websites posted notices showing a masked Palestinian stabbing an ultra-Orthodox Jew during a snowstorm, with the Temple Mount in the background. The caption in Arabic called on Palestinians to stab Jews in Jerusalem (Facebook page of PALDF, January 9, 2015).

Additional "Popular Resistance" Terrorism and Violence

• This past week the wave of violence continued, part of what the Palestinians call the "popular resistance," manifested primarily by the throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails. In addition, there was a stabbing attack in Jerusalem and a number of other such attacks were prevented.
• The prominent attacks were the following:

• On January 12, 2015, there were a number of incidents in which stones were thrown at Israeli vehicles: stones were thrown at an Israeli bus on the Alon Road running from the mountain toward the Jordan Valley; the bus was damaged. Stones were thrown at another Israeli bus on the Gush Etzion Road. In the afternoon a terrorist organization threw a rock at an Israeli vehicle near the village of Sinjil (north of Ramallah), shattering the front windshield and injuring two female passengers (Tazpit.org.il, January 12, 2015).

The rock that hit the windshield of the vehicle (Photo courtesy of Tazpit.org.il, January 12, 2015).

• On January 11, 2015, during a routine inspection, an IDF force found a knife in the glove compartment of a Palestinian vehicle (IDF Spokesman, January 11, 2015).
• On January 9, 2015, Border Policemen in Hebron detained a Palestinian in his 20s on suspicion of smuggling military equipment. The suspect arrived at a post near the Cave of the Patriarchs with a large sack, arousing the suspicions of Border Policemen at the site. In the sack were weapons which included a knife, bulletproof vests, masks and other equipment (Facebook page of the Israel Police Force, January 9, 2015).               

• On January 7, 2015, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a building in the Beit Hadassah neighborhood of Hebron. There were no casualties and no damage was reported (Tazpit.org.il, January 7, 2015).

Jerusalem Stabber Apprehended

• A 21 year-old Palestinian was apprehended in Jerusalem, suspected of having carried out a stabbing attack two weeks ago. The suspect, Musa Ajlouni, a resident of east Jerusalem, was imprisoned in the past for violence, attacking policemen and criminal activities. He confessed that the attack was premeditated and that he had wanted to kill a policeman. After carrying out the attack he fled to Ramallah where he was found hiding and apprehended. During interrogation he claimed that before the attack he hid the knife in the Muslim cemetery near the Lions' Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem (Shabak.gov.il and the Facebook page of the Israel Police Force, January 11, 2015).

Two NGOs Closed, Funded Al-Aqsa Mosque Operatives

• In a joint action, on January 12, 2015 the Israel Police Force and the Israel Security Agency ordered the closing of two NGOs in Nazareth and Jerusalem suspected of transferring funds to organizations affiliated with Hamas and the Islamic Movement. NGOs Al-Fajr Foundation for Culture and Literature in Nazareth and Muslim Women for Al-Aqsa in east Jerusalem were suspected of having transferred funds to pay the salaries of activists who regularly go to the Temple Mount to employ physical and verbal violence against groups of visitors (Facebook page of the Israel Police Force, January 12, 2015). On December 29, 2014, the Israeli minister of defense outlawed both NGOs.

Palestinian Who Planned Abduction and Murder of Jewish Youths Sentenced

• On January 6, 2015, the military court in Judea sentenced Husam al-Qawasmeh, the Hamas operative in Hebron convicted of planning the abduction and murder of the three Jewish youths in Gush Etzion on June 12, 2014, to 75 years in prison. He was also ordered to pay compensation to the families.
• Internet forums affiliated with Hamas posted a notice glorifying the murderer. It read, "The Zionist court...convicted the jihad fighter prisoner Husam al-Qawasmeh for abducting and killing the three Zionist soldiers in Hebron" (Facebook page of PALDF, January 7, 2015).

The Crossing

The Rafah Crossing

• The Rafah crossing remains closed. The Palestinian embassy in Egypt announced it would be opened between January 13 and 15, 2015, in both directions, for people with visas and foreign passports (Website of the Palestinian embassy in Egypt and Facebook page of Maher Abu Subha, January 11, 2015). However, on January 12, 2015, Maher Abu Subha, director of the crossings authority, announced that Egypt had changed its mind about opening the Rafah crossing after an Egyptian army officer in the Sinai Peninsula had been abducted by operatives affiliated with the global jihad. That was because of the danger that they would try to smuggle him into the Gaza Strip (Palestinian ministry of the interior, January 12, 2015).

The Erez Crossing

• Hamas will man the checkpoint on the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing, which until now had been manned by operatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces. Hamas moved a prefabricated structure to the site and stationed operatives from its security forces there. The operatives from the PA security forces left and all movement through the crossing was halted, with the exception of patients in need of medical treatment. Nasr Sarraj, head of the civilian committee in the Gaza Strip, claimed efforts were being made to regularize the crossing's activity (Quds.net, January 11, 2015).

Reconstruction of the Gaza Strip

• Musa Abu Marzouq, a member of Hamas' political bureau, claimed that Rami Hamdallah, prime minister of the Palestinian national consensus government, had sent Hamas a communiqué expressing obligation to deal with the burning issues of the Gaza Strip within four weeks. Hamdallah will reportedly visit the Gaza Strip in the near future (Paltoday.tv, January 6, 2015).
• The heads of Hamas continue accusing the PA of non-action and deliberately delaying the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused the PA of manipulating the funds earmarked for the Gaza Strip. He claimed that statements made by a number of government ministers proved that the real reason for the failure of the reconstruction was the game the PA was playing with the funds and its trading on the suffering of the Gazans (Alrai.com, January 5, 2015).

Fatah-Hamas Tensions

• On January 9, 2015, there were a number of explosions in Gaza City. The first occurred in the city center at the Bank of Palestine when two masked men used an IED to blow up the bank's ATM. Shortly thereafter in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, a generator was blown up at the residence of Fatah-affiliated Ihab Bsiso, national consensus government spokesman (Paltoday.ps, January 9, 2015). According to Bsiso, the explosion occurred 24 hours after he and other national consensus government ministers received threatening telephone calls (Wafa.ps, January 9, 2015).
• In an official statementFatah accused Hamas for the recent explosions in the Gaza Strip (Al-ayyam.com, January 9, 2015). Fatah spokesman Osama al-Qawasmeh condemned the explosions and said Hamas was responsible. He said they showed the Gaza Strip was under the control of a gang terrorizing the Gazans and private institutions (Maannews.net, January 9, 2015).
• In view of what is referred to in the Gaza Strip as the "helplessness" of the national consensus government, representatives of the Palestinian terrorist organizations met in the office of Musa Abu Marzouq to formulate policy for the Gaza Strip and to decide the fate of the national consensus government. An emergency meeting was held on January 12, 2015, without representatives from Fatah. Deliberations were held regarding Hamas' demand to dismantle the national consensus government and establish an independent authority to manage the Gaza Strip. After the meeting a statement was issued calling for an interim leadership to direct the PLO and settle internal disputes. It also called on the national consensus government to fulfill its obligations to the Gaza Strip (Al-Akhbar.com, January 12, 2015).

Egypt Widens the Buffer Zone

• The Egyptian security forces continue the second stage of widening the buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. According to North Sinai district governor Abd al-Fattah Harhour, the process will include the evacuation of all the residents of Rafah (Almasryalyoum.com, January 8, 2015). A total of 1,220 houses will be destroyed and 2,044 families will be evacuated (Al-Jazeera, January 8, 2015). So far 250 houses have been evacuated. According to Egyptian security sources, since the beginning of the second stage ten smuggling tunnels have been exposed (Alquds.co.uk, January 10, 2015).

Egypt widens the buffer zone (Facebook page of PALDF, January 9, 2015).

Military Training Camps for Adolescents and Youth to Open

• The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military-terrorist wing, announced its intention to open training camps throughout the Gaza Strip on January 20, 2015. Training courses will last a week with the theme "Pioneers of liberation," and adolescents and young men between the ages of 15 and 21 will be able to attend. They will receive military training and religious preaching, and also learn first aid. According to the notice, people can sign up for the courses at the nearest mosque (Qassam.ps, January 12, 2015).

Notice advertising the opening of military training courses Qassam.ps, January 11, 2015)

Palestinian Activity in the International Arena

• Riyadh al-Maliki, foreign minister in the Palestinian national consensus government, said that according to law the Palestinians would be subjected to a waiting period before becoming members in the International Criminal Court (ICC). He claimed the process had already begun and that the ICC was examining the issues raised by the Palestinians and the necessary investigations. He claimed that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had said Palestine would become an ICC member as of April 1, 2015, after Mahmoud Abbas finished signing the necessary documents (Voice of Palestine, January 7, 2015).
• Saeb Erekat claimed that the PA, in collaboration with the PLO's Executive Committee and civilian community institutions, had appointed a team to prepare two files that would be presented to the ICC as soon as Palestine was declared a full member. He said the files dealt with "the recent Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip" [i.e., Operation Protective Edge] and the construction in the settlements. He claimed they had decided to concentrate on those two issues and not present all their files at once, and to promote the establishment of an international commission of inquiry to focus on the two issues (Safa.ps, January 7, 2015).

American Position of the PA's Joining the ICC

• State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said the following at the January 7, 2015 press briefing: "...the UN spokesperson issued a statement you may have seen earlier today making clear that the steps taken in fulfilling the Secretary-General’s role as depository for the ICC Rome Statute are purely administrative. So they are therefore not a judgment on eligibility; they’re accepting the documents. Obviously, they can clarify more what his role is and how that will specifically work...The United States does not believe that the state of Palestine qualifies as a sovereign state and does not recognize it as such and does not believe that it is eligible to accede to the Rome Statute." She added, "I would just reiterate that our position on Hamas has not changed. Hamas is a designated foreign terrorist organization that continues to engage in terrorist activity and demonstrated its intentions during the summer’s conflict with Israel."^[3] (ITIC emphasis)

Palestinian Reactions of the Series of Terrorist Shooting Attacks in Paris

• Mahmoud Abbas called French President Hollande and expressed the condolences of the Palestinians for the recent wave of terrorist attacks in France. He told him that Islam was completely innocent of any crime and that the recent Friday sermons in the mosques in the PA-administered territories had been devoted to condemning the massacre at Charlie Hebdo (Al-ayyam.com, January 11, 2015).
• Hamas also formally condemned the terrorist attacks in France. It claimed in an announcement that there was no justification for killing innocent people because of differences of opinion and different viewpoints. The announcement also criticized Israel for linking Hamas' activities with the attacks in Paris (Safa.ps, January 10, 2015).
• Palestinians held a demonstration in front of the French Cultural Center in Gaza City to show solidarity with France. Participants waved anti-terrorism signs.^[4] Similar rallies were held in Ramallah and Hebron. Yasser Abd Rabbo, PLO secretary general, gave a speech at a rally in Ramallah where he said the Palestinian people were sending a message of solidarity to French, who identified with "the daily terrorism of the [so-called Israeli] occupation" (Maannews.net, January 11, 2015).
• Mahmoud Abbas went to Paris to join world leaders in the giant demonstration held in Paris. His participation was received with varying reactions. The PA noted his senior position and that he had been personally invited to attend, the respect shown to him during his visit to Paris and the fact that the French president asked him to march in the front row. However, sources identified with Hamas criticized his participation, saying he not only had not attended any solidarity rally in the Gaza Strip during the fighting in Operation Protective Edge, he had also prevented solidarity activities from being held in PA-administrated territories  (Facebook page of Fayez Abu Shamala, January 12, 2015).

Mahmoud Abbas walks on the graves of dead Gazans to place flowers on the grave of the Charlie Hebdo victims. The cartoon originally appeared on the Hamas-affiliated website Felesteen, but without the name of the cartoonist  (Facebook page of PALINFO and Felesteen.ps, January 12, 2015) 

Trials Begins in United States against Palestinian Authority

• On January 12, 2015, an American court held its first session regarding a ten-year old suit brought against the PA and the PLO in the name of several American families demanding a billion dollars in compensation as victims of Palestinian terrorism. A Palestinian team composed of the minister of finance, the minister for social affairs, a spokesman for the Palestinian national consensus government and Mahmoud Abbas' advisor for financial matters left for New York to complete the necessary preparations for mounting a defense (Wafa.ps, January 5, 2015).