TEL AVIV — Israel's military brass expects that the West Bank would
become the next arena in a resurgence of the Palestinian war against Israel.
Israeli security sources said the intelligence community has determined
that Palestinian insurgents have smuggled Kassam-class short-range missiles and mortars into the West Bank. They said reports that SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles are also being transferred are under investigation.
The sources said the smuggling of weapons started from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, into
Israel's southern Negev desert and then into the West Bank.
"Keeping anti-aircraft missiles in the Gaza Strip doesn't do much good
because there is no civilian air traffic," an officer said. "But bringing
the missiles into the West Bank means you can target planes going in and out
of Ben-Gurion [international airport]."
Senior military officers said Palestinian insurgency groups, supported
by Iran, Hizbullah and Syria, have sought to deploy heavy weapons into the
West Bank for attacks against Israeli communities both in the area as well
as within the pre-1967 borders of the Jewish state. They said the military
and security services believe the ruling Fatah movement along with the
opposition Hamas smuggled the first Palestinian missiles into the West Bank
in early 2005.
"The terrorists won't quit after the disengagement," a senior officer
said. "Their goal is to introduce the same kind of weapons and the
same attacks that have taken place in the Gaza Strip over the last three
years."
The officers said Hizbullah has become the major impetus of the
Palestinian insurgency in the West Bank. They said Hizbullah has helped
train key operatives, provide sabotage expertise and technology as well as
financed attacks.
"Fatah members, some of which have accepted the calm and some have not,
are directed by Hizbullah, as are the Popular Resistance Committees,"
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon said. "There is certainly a
considerable difference between the current situation and what was happening
4-5 months ago, but certainly, the quiet has not become absolute."
The Palestinian Authority has not moved to either collect weapons from
insurgency groups or dismantle their cells, the
officers said. Instead, they said, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to
protect insurgency groups from Israel in exchange for limiting the number
and extent of their attacks.
[On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told military officers
that he was not certain that the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and northern
West Bank would lead to an improvement in Israeli security. He did not
elaborate.]
