Palestinians Vow No Let Up In Intifada
Though some detected a “lull” in the three-month-old intifada due to fatigue, Palestinians used gunfire and firebombs to attack Israeli soldiers and civilians throughout Judea/Samaria and Gaza in recent days, following pledges by militant groups to continue the armed struggle with Israel until their political goals are achieved.
On THURSDAY, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad each vowed to continue the renewed intifada until all Jews are expelled from YESHA. “The intifada is the strategic tool of the Palestinian people who seek sovereignty over all occupied areas,” one Fatah official said on ISRAEL RADIO.
A Palestinian man was shot and killed while running towards an IDF outpost near the Erez checkpoint in northern Gaza on Thursday night shouting “Allahu Akbar (“Allah is greater”), an Islamic slogan often used by Muslim terrorists and jihad fighters. IDF soldiers fired when he began to climb the fence of the outpost.
Also that night, Palestinians fired at a civilian bus and cars in Samaria, and at IDF bases near Ramallah and Nablus (biblical Shechem), and Neve Dekalim and Rafiah in Gaza. The IDF detected a roadside bomb south of Hebron and successfully defused it.
A two-hour gun battle ensued in the Tulkarm area at noon-time, after Palestinian policemen shot at army positions west of the city, in the Israeli-controlled industrial zone. Near Hizme, Palestinians stoned residents of Ofra as they marched towards the capital in protest of planned concessions.
On FRIDAY afternoon, heavy gun battles broke out when Palestinian fire was directed at an IDF position in the settlement of Beit Haggai outside Hebron. One 19-year-old Arab woman was killed, and another 18-year-old female was wounded. An IDF spokesman said a request by the army to treat the woman was turned down by the Palestinians. Shots were also fired Friday at several other Israeli army targets, at Efrat in Judea, further north near Kalkilya, and at settlements in Gaza. The Nablus bypass road also came under fire.
On SATURDAY, an Israeli motorist was lightly wounded at night by a large rock thrown at his vehicle near Kiryat Arba. Palestinian gunmen fired at IDF positions in Kiryat Arba, near Ariel, near Jenin, and at an army post on the Egyptian border. Also Saturday night, Arabs shot pieces of metal at Israelis in Jerusalem’s Armon HaNatziv neighborhood, and threw two firebombs at a building.
Fatah held a military parade in Nablus, burning cardboard images of a tank and a settlement, and vowing to continue the intifada, even as thousands of Palestinians attended funerals in Gaza and Hebron.
On SUNDAY, two Jewish youths were stabbed in the evening by a youth of Arab appearance on Jerusalem’s Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall. The assailant fled the scene. The two victims were hospitalized and listed in good condition.
A public bus was ambushed on the Jericho bypass road. Shots were also fired at Psagot near Ramallah, near Shilo, near Elon Moreh, and at Neve Dekalim, Rafiah and Gadid in Gaza. In the Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret Zion, Arabs from an adjacent village threw stones at Israeli police. Sunday morning IDF sappers defused a bomb on the southern Nablus bypass road, and later two more along the border fence with Gaza.
The IDF searched at night for five armed Palestinians spotted during operations near the main road between Jerusalem and Modi’in. Soldiers shot at the Arabs, who fled to the nearby village Beit Urr in Area B. The incident occurred on a stretch of the Jerusalem-Modi’in highway which has recently been the scene of numerous shootings at Israeli vehicles.
IDF soldiers also shot two Palestinians, one a Fatah Tanzim member on Sunday night. Soldiers recognised the terrorist as one of the perpetrators of attacks in the Halhoul area, and shot him as he tried to escape arrest. They then called an ambulance and the man underwent surgery in a Jerusalem hospital.
On MONDAY, terrorists opened fire at an Israeli vehicle traveling on the Givon-Givat Ze’ev road north of the Jerusalem in the evening, lightly wounding a 12-year-old boy. Gunmen waited in a car and shot at the passing Israeli vehicle, hitting the boy in the thigh and elbow. Fifteen bullet casings were found at the site of the attack.
Earlier Monday, Palestinians from the Aida refugee camp on the outskirts of Bethlehem shot at Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, the first shooting incident after two weeks of quiet in the besieged neighborhood. No one was injured, but the bullets lightly damaged an apartment. A senior security official said Monday that he had expected the gunfire on Gilo to continue after the brief lull, mainly due to Palestinian interests that the Bethlehem area be calm during the Christmas holiday.
Meanwhile, IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian at the Netzarim junction who approached an army patrol while carrying a bag. The soldiers, fearing the man was about to perpetrate a suicide bomb attack, shot him in the leg. A local ambulance evacuated the man from the scene. Palestinians claim the man was killed in the incident.
Palestinian gunmen fired on two Israeli vehicles en route to Gush Shilo, south of Nablus, and on an IDF patrol near kibbutz Nahal Oz in northern Gaza, both places of numerous sniper attacks lately. IDF and Palestinian forces also engaged in a heavy exchange of fire at the familiar Ayosh junction flashpoint north of Ramallah.
On TUESDAY, a 27-year-old Palestinian was reportedly shot and killed by IDF forces near Nablus during the course of a clash between IDF and Palestinian forces in the city.
Hamas stated Tuesday that one its terrorists planted the bomb that exploded in downtown Netanya on January 1, injuring over 50 Israelis. Hamas’ military wing, the Izzadin Kassam brigades, said in the statement that Hamid Abu-Hajle, a student at an-Najah University in Nablus, was the unidentified individual being treated in the hospital who was suspected of planting the bomb. The man died yesterday morning from severe burns sustained in the explosion.
Three Palestinians were seen infiltrating the perimeter of the Gaza community of Morag early Tuesday morning. IDF soldiers opened fire on the group before they fled.
Used with Permission from International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.