U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2006 - Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza

Israel faced a new situation when HAMAS, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, assumed control of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). After HAMAS' electoral victory in January, the Israeli government declared it would not meet with PA representatives, initiated a diplomatic campaign to secure international isolation of the HAMAS-led PA government, and withheld the disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars of value-added tax and customs revenues collected by Israel on behalf of the PA. Following the formation of a new HAMAS-led government in March, the Israeli government declared it would hold HAMAS responsible for all terrorist attacks and rocket launches emanating from PA territory. IDF officials were instructed to suspend all contact with Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip. Israeli security experts increasingly expressed concern that terrorist know-how and capabilities would be transferred from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

Throughout the year, Israel grappled with the problem of Qassam rocket launches from the Gaza Strip. On numerous occasions, rockets struck Israeli communities in the western Negev desert, including Sderot, or landed near or in the city of Ashkelon. Evidence suggested that Palestinian terrorists were able, on occasion, to improve the range of the Qassams. On at least three occasions, longer-range Katyusha rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip. To address the problem of rocket launches from populated areas, the IDF modified its rules of engagement to permit its forces to fire on targets a few hundred meters from Palestinian homes and police positions. During an IDF incursion into the northern Gaza Strip in November (Operation Autumn Cloud), an errant IDF artillery strike destroyed an apartment complex, and killed 18 Palestinian civilians and wounded over 50. A HAMAS spokesman called on all Palestinian factions to renew attacks, including suicide bombings, inside Israeli territory. Beginning in late November, however, HAMAS was the primary group observing a cessation of rocket fire from Gaza into green-line Israel. Although other groups have disregarded the cease-fire, HAMAS has upheld it, according to Israeli security experts.

Israel also grappled with a growing concern that terrorists, weapons, and funds were being smuggled between Egypt and the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing – manned by the PA Border Crossing Authority, international observers, and Egyptian border guards – and a series of tunnels under the 12 km Philadelphi Corridor (PC) separating Gaza from Egypt. Israeli security experts voiced concern that Palestinian militants were exiting the Gaza Strip via Rafah, and then infiltrating Israel across the Egypt-Israel border. After HAMAS staged a June 25 attack on IDF soldiers near Kerem Shalom that resulted in two deaths and the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel took steps that severely limited the operation of the Rafah crossing. The IDF also carried out operations to locate tunnels under the PC, destroying at least 17 during the year.

Early in 2006, Israeli security officials said Israel was not targeting HAMAS because it forbade its members to participate in Qassam rocket launches. The Israelis maintained, however, that HAMAS activists were providing assistance to militants from other terrorist groups launching Qassams. HAMAS called Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) April 17 suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv a legitimate act of resistance. PIJ launched Qassam rockets into Israel, carried out the January 19 and April 17 suicide bombings at the old central bus station in Tel Aviv (which killed ten Israeli civilians and an American citizen, and injured 98 Israeli civilians), participated in a foiled February attack against the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, and attempted to carry out a number of other suicide bombings. Israeli security sources said PIJ made significant efforts to carry out terror attacks in Israel prior to the March 28 Knesset elections. The IDF believed PIJ was behind the launch of a Katyusha rocket from the Gaza Strip into Israel during Knesset elections.

Israeli security officials also maintained that various Fatah-affiliated groups carried out Qassam launches, particularly the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AAMB) and the Abu Rish Brigades. Using stolen bulldozers, AAMB demolished part of the border wall between Gaza and Egypt on January 4, allowing hundreds of Palestinians to surge through the wall and enter Egypt. AAMB also claimed that it participated in two failed attempts in February to attack the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. AAMB claimed, on the Hizballah-operated Al-Manar TV station in Lebanon that it was responsible for the March 30 suicide car bombing at the entrance to a West Bank settlement that killed four Israeli civilians. On April 17, AAMB issued a statement threatening to target Zionists outside Palestine until Israel released its prisoners.

Lebanese Hizballah continued to provide support to select Palestinian groups to augment their capacity to conduct attacks against Israel. Hizballah also continued to call for the destruction of Israel, and directly launched a number of attacks from Lebanon, including a May 28 attack against Israel and the July 12 attack (see "The Summer War", earlier in this chapter).

Israeli security services maintained that Palestinian terrorists attempted numerous times to perpetrate attacks in Israel, but were thwarted. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip attempted to infiltrate Israel by breaching the security fence around the Gaza Strip, and PIJ members were stopped en route to suicide bombings in Israeli territory. Israeli security officials claim they thwarted numerous attempts by Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) operatives and other Palestinian militants to detonate explosives at the Karni crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

According to claims by HAMAS, AAMB, PIJ, PFLP, and the PRC, a number of terrorist attacks and Qassam launches were carried out by two or more organizations acting together. AAMB, PRC and PIJ claimed to have cooperated in a foiled February 9 attempt to attack the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. In February, the IDF and ISA shut down a Fatah-Tanzim infrastructure in Bethlehem that was receiving instructions and professional and financial assistance from PRC terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli security sources expressed concern that AQ and other external Sunni extremists were attempting to infiltrate the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On March 21, an Israeli military court in the West Bank charged two Palestinians with conspiracy to cause death, active membership in AQ, illegal assembly, and other charges. According to the charges, the two men created an al-Qaida cell in the West Bank city of Nablus, were recruiting to form other AQ cells in the West Bank, were preparing to carry out large-scale terrorist attacks in Israel, and were receiving funds and instructions from al-Qaida in Jordan. One of the two men had also been a member of HAMAS and AAMB.

In response to continuing threat information, Israeli security forces launched frequent arrest and detention raids throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, conducted targeted killings of suspected Palestinian terrorists, imposed strict and widespread closures and curfews in Palestinian areas, conducted aerial attacks on buildings affiliated with designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations in the Gaza Strip, and continued the construction of an extensive security fence in the West Bank. Israeli security forces arrested and held without trial or charges HAMAS and other Palestinian lawmakers and PA ministers from the West Bank. In the wake of the June 25 kidnapping by HAMAS of an IDF corporal posted outside the Gaza Strip, IDF troops arrested 64 HAMAS ministers and members of parliament. On August 5, the IDF arrested the speaker of the PA parliament.

On March 14, the IDF carried out an operation to seize Palestinian terrorists held in a prison in the West Bank city of Jericho within minutes after international monitors left the prison. The IDF took into custody five PFLP members, including four held responsible for the 2001 murder of an Israeli government minister, a prisoner responsible for the foiled "Karine A" weapons smuggling attempt, and over 100 other prisoners (most of whom were soon released). Israel's Attorney General said the prisoners believed responsible for the Israeli minister's murder would stand trial.

In December 2005, the IDF declared a 16 square kilometer zone in the northern Gaza Strip off-limits, warning the PA and general public that anyone in the zone could be targeted. The area remained off-limits in 2006. The IDF carried out ground and naval artillery and aerial strikes against wanted terror suspects and terrorists attempting to launch Qassam rockets into Israel, access roads to Qassam rocket launch sites, terrorist training camps, and weapons manufacturing and storage facilities. The IDF also conducted air strikes against the offices and official establishments of the PA in the Gaza Strip, including the office of PA Prime Minister Haniyeh, the PA ministries of interior, foreign affairs, and finance; and the offices of HAMAS' security force located in the Jabalya refugee camp.

Israeli security forces carried out several operations to shut down terrorist finance networks and seize terrorist funds. In the port city of Ashdod, Israeli Customs authorities seized containers of goods worth millions of dollars that they claimed were to be sold as part of a money laundering and transfer operation aimed at providing funds to HAMAS and PIJ. Another container from China destined for the Gaza Strip was confiscated because it allegedly contained combat support equipment. On numerous occasions, Israeli security forces raided the West Bank offices of HAMAS' "Dawaa" organization, charging that the offices were providing financial support to families of suicide bombers and imprisoned terrorists under the guise of charity. Israeli security forces also raided foreign exchange bureaus in the West Bank, confiscating millions of counterfeit shekels that Israeli security sources suspected originated in Iran, were transferred by HAMAS, PIJ, and Hizballah offices in Syria and Lebanon, and were earmarked for terrorist acts.

Israeli security experts cited occasions when HAMAS-affiliated PA officials smuggled millions of dollars into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. In June, PA Foreign Minister Zahar carried 20 million Euros in his suitcases into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. On October 22, the PA Interior Minister carried $2 million into the Gaza Strip in his suitcases. On November 28, the PA Foreign Minister crossed into Gaza through Rafah with $20 million. In an effort to stop another such effort, Israel closed the Rafah crossing on December 14, to prevent PA Prime Minister Haniyeh from entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt carrying $35 million. Haniyeh was eventually allowed to enter Gaza after he agreed to deposit the money in an Egyptian bank.