Palestinians accused of firing rockets from West Bank

JERUSALEM – An Israeli military court yesterday conceded Palestinians have been firing rockets from the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem and runs alongside Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport.

WND reported exclusively terrorists in the northern West Bank fired a series of rockets in recent months toward Jewish population centers. At the time, Israeli security officials would not state on the record any rockets were launched from the territory.

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Security analysts maintain publicity about terror groups' current missile capabilities in the West Bank could generate criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's stated plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank.

Yesterday, an Israeli military court accused Amar Barake, a member of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, of launching rockets in 2006 from the northern West Bank town of Jenin. The court said the rockets were aimed at Israeli cities but fell short.

The court said Barake launched the rockets in May and July of 2006 on the same dates WND first reported the rockets were fired.

On May 11, 2006, Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group in the northern Samaria town of Jenin told WND they fired two rockets aimed at an Israeli military installation about a mile away. The leaders said the projectiles were called Bahaa rockets, named after Saed Bahaa, an Al Aqsa Brigades member killed in an Israeli anti-terror operation. A source close to the Brigades said the rockets actually were Jenin 1s, a less advanced Qassam rocket that can travel about one mile.

A security official confirmed at the time on condition of anonymity there was information the rockets were fired. But an official spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces told WND the army was not aware of any rockets fired from Jenin.

Last July, Abu Oudai, chief rocket coordinator for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, called WND to take credit for a Qassam rocket he said his group fired from Jenin. He said the rocket fell short and landed in Palestinian territory.

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Abu Oudai, who was killed in an antiterror operation in September 2006, said in July the rocket infrastructure in Jenin seeks to place the entire lower Galilee region of Israel under the regular threat of rockets.

He announced the beginning of the regular firing of Palestinian rockets from the West Bank "just like we fire them from Gaza."

Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last August, more than 4,000 rockets have been fired into nearby Jewish communities. The Israeli town of Sderot, a city of 25,000 Jews and home to the country's defense minister, Amir Peretz, is regularly rocked by Palestinian projectile fire.

Abu Oudai said his group has the ability to produce rockets in the northern West Bank – a claim denied by the Israeli army. He said his terror organization's goal "is to cover all Israeli regions and to bring them inside the distance of our rockets."

"Every Israeli site or city is inside our capabilities and if some sites are not yet they will be very soon. The Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, every site and city will be targeted. We are speaking about a new era in the conflict between us and the enemy," Abu Oudai said.

Israel minimizing West Bank rocket infrastructure?

Official Israeli defense spokesmen claim the threat of rockets being fired from the West Bank is minimal. They say the army there has largely prevented rockets from being transferred to the territory from the Gaza Strip.

Yaacov Amidror, former head of Israeli military intelligence research, told WND, "Can Israel be sure in the future there won't be a rocket threat? Of course not. But the army has been extremely successful in stopping the flow and production of rockets in the West Bank."

On a few occasions the past two years the IDF has announced it has found evidence of rocket construction in the northern West Bank during routine raids, particularly in Jenin and nearby Nablus. In October, three members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza-based terror group, were arrested attempting to infiltrate northern Samaria to set up a Qassam missile manufacturing facility. The Committees has fired over 300 rockets from the Gaza Strip during the past four years.

The threat of projectiles has also been highlighted in Bethlehem, which borders Jerusalem. Last February, Israel's Shin Bet Security Services told reporters it captured a rocket launcher and mortars that were slated to be fired by the Committees terror group at Gilo, a peripheral Jerusalem neighborhood.

The day the attack was thwarted, Muhammad Abdel El, spokesman for the Committees, told WND his group was coordinating extensive rocket capabilities in the West Bank:

"We call on (Shin Bet chief Yuval) Diskin and tell him not to be so happy and proud about stopping our attack because there is much more to come. I am not going to give details (about which cities we will attack), but we are planning to be present all around the West Bank. Every Israeli target is a legitimate target. Jerusalem, Ben Gurion International Airport, Tel Aviv and every Israeli point can be part of our goals."

While Abdel El's statements can be chalked up to rhetoric, intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say there is much information Palestinian terror groups have been producing and stockpiling rockets in northern Samaria that are currently capable of being fired.

But some security officials say the information is not getting out.

"All I can say is the information is known by the decision makers," said a senior security official.

The official noted Israel has been "reluctant" to order large-scale anti-rocket operations in the northern West Bank in spite of intelligence about rocket infrastructures there.

Knesset Member Effie Eitam, chairman of the National Union Party, told WND any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would result in rockets fired a major Israeli cities.

"Aside from the short-range rockets the Palestinians have now, it is just a question of time before they obtain longer-range missiles from Iran. Regardless, Olmert's withdrawal plan will give the terrorists land bordering our major cities," said Eitam, who serves on the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Eitam noted other withdrawals that resulted in rocket threats:

"Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. Now Hezbollah has over 10,000 missiles on the border pointed at us. Israel evacuated Gaza last summer. The missiles are flying out every day. There is no doubt a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria (West Bank) will bring a rocket war to Israel."

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