TEL AVIV ø For the first time, Palestinian insurgents succeeded in
striking a vital Israeli facility.
Two Palestinian suicide attackers blew themselves up around the southern
Israeli port of Ashdod on Sunday. At least 10 people were killed and another
18 were injured.
It was the first time, a Palestinian insurgent, despite numerous
attempts, managed to enter a vital Israeli facility. Israeli officials said
the insurgents, one of them who managed to obtain a permit to enter the
facility, sought to blow himself up next to an ammonia tanker. The port is
guarded by a private contractor.
"This was the kind of attack called tandem," Knesset Foreign Affairs and
Defense Committee chairman Yuval Steinitz said. "The first stage of the
strike was to test the protection suite of the facility and the second
bombing was to have taken place against a quality target. This is the same
principle used in an advanced anti-tank weapon."
Over the last three years, Palestinian insurgents have attempted to
infiltrate Israeli sea and airports. In 2002, Israeli security authorities
foiled a Palestinian suicide bombing in Ben-Gurion Airport. Officials said
Israel has about 50 strategic civilian and military facilities, including
ports, gas and fuel depots and power stations.
On Monday, Israeli authorities were ordered on high alert as Israeli Air
Force AH-64A Apache attacked two suspected insurgency arsenals in Gaza City.
Officials said the alert was for a Palestinian attack on an another Israeli
sea port or airport. Hours later, Palestinian insurgents bombed the Karni
border terminal in the eastern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said the two suicide bombers who attacked the Ashdod
port were age 18 and residents of the
Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. It was not clear how they entered
Israel, but officials did not rule out the possibility that they entered
Israel on forged Israeli permits. The Ashdod civilian port is adjacent to
the Israel Navy port.
The Fatah-dominated Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said the suicide operation
was a joint mission with Hamas. Officials said one suicide bomber blew
himself up inside the port while the other detonated his explosive belt
outside the heavily-secured facility.
"A port, by nature, is a very busy place," Energy Minister Avraham
Paritzky said. "There are many people coming and going. It is impossible to
seal the entire country hermetically."
In a related development, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has
advanced his plan for a unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Israel's
state-owned television reported on late Sunday that Sharon has decided to
allow Egypt to immediately deploy troops along its border with the Gaza
Strip.
The television report said that such an Egyptian troop deployment would
require a revision of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The report said
Israel and Egypt will sign a diplomatic note to allow for the Egyptian
troops.
