Terrorists know how to penetrate the Gaza 'security fence'
I have warned many times that neither 'security fence' - either in Gaza or in Judea and Samaria - is a panacea for Israel's problems with the 'Palestinians.' Last June, in light of the Gilad Shalit kidnapping, an IDF officer attempted to sound the alarm that the fence around Gaza - where the topographical conditions are far more favorable than they are in Judea and Samaria - is not impenetrable. Yesterday, we had another reminder of that. Two 'Palestinian' terrorists came over the fence from Gaza and attempted to carry out a terror attack. The infiltration incident occurred early Saturday morning, when the group of terrorists scaled the security barrier ... under the cover of the early morning fog south of Moshav Netiv Ha'asara.But these terrorists weren't just looking for soldiers:
Initial probes revealed that the terrorists proceeded east to the Erez checkpoint, where they opened fire with automatic rifles at the district coordinating office there.
One soldier was lightly wounded in the initial gunfire. Golani Brigade soldiers then arrived and killed two infiltrators in a close-range gun battle.
Both militants, who were carrying weapons and explosives, apparently belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees, an independent militant group inspired by Lebanon's Hezbollah. They were planning an attack on a nearby Israeli community.
Sources in the Palestinian Authority say Hamas sponsored the attack in order to get Israel to close the Erez Crossing. Hamas wanted to prevent a group of Palestinian students from passing through the crossing, a move the Palestinian Authority's Fatah leadership coordinated with Israel without consulting Hamas, the sources said.
Hamas authorized the smaller Popular Resistance Committees and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine to carry out the attack because it feared its rival, Fatah, might present the opening of the Erez crossing as an achievement, they said.
...
A spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza confirmed that one of its gunmen, Mohammed Sakr, and another from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khader Awkal, were killed in a "martyrdom operation against the Zionist entity" targeting the Israeli community of Nativ Ha'asara, near the Gaza border.
"The occupying forces do not distinguish between civilians and soldiers, and neither do the Popular Resistance Committees," the spokesman said.
At first, the IDF did not want to admit that the Gaza fence is not 100% effective - perhaps out of fear of upsetting the 'political echelon.' So yesterday, the commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade, Moni Katz, had this to say: The device used by Palestinian infiltrators Saturday morning to cross the wall separating Gaza from Israel is professional and sophisticated, IDF Northern Gaza Brigade Commander Moni Katz said Saturday afternoon.I have inserted into this post two pictures of the 'device' being cleared away by IDF soldiers, and you can look at it yourself and decide if it's 'professional and sophisticated' and requires 'information that came from outside the Gaza Strip,' or whether it looks more like something you would have used to access your tree house in your backyard.
"This device may have been built with the help of information that came from outside the Gaza Strip," he said. Saturday morning, IDF soldiers killed two heavily armed Palestinian gunmen who crossed into Israel near Gaza's Erez crossing.
Later in the day, Moni Katz decided that his first statement looked foolish and he admitted reality (something the Olmert-Barak-Livni government is incapable of doing):
The officers added that terrorist organizations would likely increase their attempts to infiltrate Israeli towns.Good, yes, at least for yesterday. Perfect? Not likely. Eventually - God forbid - the 'Palestinians' are likely to succeed. And then instead of one IDF soldier named Gilad Shalit being held hostage in Gaza we will likely have five Kibbutznikim from Netiv Haasara or five civilians from Sderot being held hostage in Gaza. Nothing else is likely to prod the government into taking action.
"We're not surprised," said Col. Moni Katz, commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade. "It's obvious to us that this is the reality, and the trend is apparently that it's going to continue. In the end, our operational response is currently good."
Update 4:11 PM
Six unarmed 'Palestinian' boys got over the fence this morning. The IDF caught them right away but cannot even be sure they weren't a distraction for a more serious infiltration.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:22 AM
2 Comments:
With regard to Gaza, I favored Israel getting out for demographic reasons. That by leaving, Israel was in effect defining 1.3 million arab/muslims as no longer in Greater Israel. Perhaps it would have been better to leave IDF military bases in Gaza, however then I guess it would have appeared that Israel was removing its citizen-residents, which may have created a precedent for other areas on the West Bank.
While the fence is not absolute panacea, it has worked. As to how to stop incoming missiles rom Gaza, I don't know. In any event, no further withdrawals for territory should be (or need to be)done.
'A' fence is better than no fence, but there needs to be a no man's land on either side substantial enough that unmanned systems can eliminate anything in them larger than a small dog. Barring that, in built up areas, complete surveillance manned and unmanned is compulsory.
Missiles from Gaza demand a no man's land INSIDE Gaza = to their range. If the range increases, well so does the no man's land. If the range is larger than Gaza ..well, HAMAS has chosen tents in the Egyptian desert, as a govt continually attacking another sovereign state. This policy might interest Egypt in preventing this outcome.
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