Israel Matzav

Israelis urged to leave Sinai

The National Security Council's Counterterrorism Division has urged Israeli tourists in Sinai to leave immediately, as Egyptian security forces have begun a large-scale search throughout Sinai for four Palestinian terrorists suspected of planning attacks against Israelis. According to the Jerusalem Post,

"Egyptian security received intelligence regarding the four Palestinians, who belong to one of the extreme Palestinian factions and have infiltrated Egyptian territory through the Rafah Crossing," a security source said.

According to the source, the suspects infiltrated Egypt five days ago and plan to carry out attacks against Israeli targets as a form of retaliation against IDF action in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt has called upon owners of various tourist hot-spots throughout the Sinai Peninsula to notify police of every Palestinian staying at their vacation sites.

DEBKAfile identifies the terrorist organization involved as

a joint Hamas-Jihad Islami- Popular Resistance Committees team plus members of the Islamic Army (aka al Qaeda-Palestine), the same makeup as the group which snatched and is still holding the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit.

DEBKAfile also reports that

the mastermind behind this terror venture is Zakariah Durmush, chief of the Islamic Army militia based in Gaza City, who also trained the team.

DEBKAfile tries to connect the dots to show the lines:

DEBKAfile’s terror experts note that the chickens may be coming to roost as a result of the passivity displayed by Israel, Egypt, the United States and European powers in the face of expanding Palestinian terror resources in the Gaza Strip boosted by al Qaeda’s penetration. Very little is being done to stem the massive smuggling of weapons and fighters from Egypt to Gaza through an expanding warren of tunnels; nothing has been done to seal the Philadelphi border route against this traffic, or to snap the tightening interaction for joint projects between the armed Palestinian factions of Gaza and al Qaeda cells in Sinai.

Because Israeli authorities persist in shrugging off the al Qaeda presence in Gaza and its complicity in the Shalit abduction, the Islamic Army’s Durmush has been able to get away scot-free with more hits and now the threat of mayhem.

On August 14, his men captured two Fox News journalists, the American Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealander, Olaf Wiig, 36, releasing them after two weeks only after they publicly converted to Islam.

On September 15, the senior Palestinian intelligence officer Col. Jad Tayeh was trapped and murdered in a cunningly-laid ambush on his way back to Gaza from an undercover mission in Egypt. Col. Taya was the senior liaison man between Palestinian and Egyptian intelligence services. Neither has tracked the leak which betrayed the murdered man’s secret route to Durmush. They are bound to suspect at least one mole has been planted by al Qaeda.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:36 PM