Terror tunnel found in Jewish Gaza

NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza – Israeli forces this afternoon thwarted a series of suicide attacks in a large Jewish Gaza neighborhood after they uncovered a tunnel here just hours before it was to be completed.

The finding highlights fears the Gaza withdrawal will be carried out under fire.

The Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad dug the tunnel from Khan Yunis leading into Neve Dekalim, the largest town in the Gush Katif slate of Jewish Gaza communities here. Khan Yunis borders parts of Gush Katif.

Terrorists were planning to use the tunnel, which would have been completed today, to carry out large-scale suicide attacks inside Neve Dekalim, the only Katif town with restaurants and office buildings.

The 20-meter tunnel was uncovered in Dekalim's greenhouse area after an arrested Islamic Jihad terrorist led security officials to the site.

It was the second tunnel discovered in Gush Katif. The first, June 29, led into Dekalim's industrial district, just a quarter of a mile from the town's residential zone.

Ami Shaked, chief security coordinator for Gush Katif, told WND he assumes there are more tunnels and said the Israeli Defense Forces can do little to stop them.

"We don't know if there are more tunnels here, or if more are being dug," Shaked said. "Unless the army conducts operations in Khan Yunis and in other key hot spots in the Gaza Strip, there isn't much that can be done about the tunnels. We have no special equipment to search for tunnels. You have to only use intelligence information to find them."

Shaked said Palestinian security forces in Gaza "aren't lifting a finger to stop tunnel construction on their side."

Palestinian terrorists regularly use tunnels to smuggle weapons from Egypt into the nearby Rafah refugee camp. And Hamas in December killed five Israelis by packing explosives in a tunnel they had dug underneath a military base. But the tunnel discoveries in Neve Dekalim marked the first known cases of terrorists planning to infiltrate Gaza's Jewish communities by way of a tunnel.

The finding highlights fears the Gaza withdrawal will be carried out under fire by Palestinian terrorists. Hamas currently launches an average of three mortars and Qassam rockets per day at Gush Katif. The rockets the past two weeks have killed one person and injured five. Analysts expect the terror group to escalate the attacks to demonstrate to its supporters it drove Israel from the area.

A rise in Palestinian terror could precipitate a political crisis for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Israeli public has stated in several recent opinion polls it will not support the Gaza withdrawal if it is carried out under fire.

Israeli officials have said Palestinian terror could delay the evacuation.

Deputy Defense Minister Zev Boim said yesterday, "I don't see a possibility that simultaneously, if we come under fire during withdrawal, that we will be able to act massively against Palestinian terror to stop the fire and also to continue the withdrawal. The worst-case scenario would require 10 days to two weeks of a heavy strike against terror to uproot it."

Anita Tucker, a Katif spokeswoman and long-time area resident, told WND, "It's bad enough Israel is trying to force us from our homes. It doesn't make it easier that we have rockets fired at us every day and deal with shootings on our roads. Now we have to worry about terrorists popping out of tunnels in our own backyards."

Editor's note: "ISRAEL BETRAYED?" – the July issue of WND's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine – is devoted entirely to an in-depth exploration of the controversial forced removal of thousands of Jewish residents from Gaza planned for August, and the likely creation of a Hamas-run terror state many believe will follow. Read more about "ISRAEL BETRAYED?"

Previous stories:

Terror tunnels latest threat to Jewish Gaza

Egypt 'bribed for Palestinian smuggling'

Cairo wont stop arms smuggling into Gaza

Inside Gaza's terror tunnels