JERUSALEM ø Palestinian insurgency groups have launched a drive to
recruit foreign journalists and diplomats in an effort to smuggle money
and explosives for attacks in Israel.
A senior Israeli military source said Hamas began the new policy in
early 2004 in an attempt to circumvent Israel's closure of the Gaza Strip.
The source said Hamas has tried to recruit foreign journalists, diplomats
and dignitaries to exploit their freedom of movement in an effort to relay
insurgency funds and explosives from the Gaza Strip to Israel or the West
Bank.
"In the last few months, we have been getting very clear information
that the terrorists will not stop at anything and are using journalists to
get what they want," the military source said.
[On Wednesday, Israel's military raided three Palestinian refugee camps
in the Gaza Strip ø Dir El Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah. Palestinian
insurgents fired an anti-tank missile toward Israeli troops. A photographer
from Agence France Presse was injured during the clashes, Middle East Newsline reported.]
The Israeli military has increasingly prevented Israeli and foreign
journalists from entering the Gaza Strip from Israel. The military said the
restrictions were based on intelligence information of imminent Hamas
attacks.
Hamas has intensified its efforts to stage a major attack on an Israeli
civilian target in wake of the assassination of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin
and Abdul Aziz Rantisi. So far, the most lethal Palestinian attack was the
May 2 ambush of an Israeli car in the Gaza Strip in which a mother and her
four children were shot dead. Fatah and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility
for the attack.
The source said Hamas and other Palestinian insurgency groups were
trying to obtain and forge Israeli government press cards and other official
documents that permit the passage of foreigners through the Erez terminal
in the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas has also tried to forge diplomatic
documents for use in sending operatives through Israeli checkpoints.
Hamas has also tried to recruit foreigners for attacks. The military
source said one prospect was that Hamas operatives would pressure or
threaten a visiting foreign journalist to relay a package from the Gaza
Strip to Israel.
In April, Israeli officials warned that Israeli and foreign journalists
were under danger of abduction by Palestinian insurgents in the northern
West Bank. The military source said the threat of Palestinian abduction
continues.
On three occasions, the source said, Israeli troops stopped Israeli
journalists from meeting Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank. The source
said the military had received information that insurgents planned to abduct
journalists invited to obtain an interview.
