Middle East Update

MIDDLE EAST UPDATE NO 136 - JANUARY 2007

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TERRORISM:
10 Is.Jihad terrorists were killed in targeted IAF air-strikes on Dec 17 (Arutz) PA terrorist Salid Ziwad was shot and captured early Wednesday morning December 19.. Ziwad was responsible for one of the most dramatic attacks in recent history (Arutz) 2 Hamas terrorists were killed in an IAF strike in central Gaza, on Dec 24 (Arutz) On Dec 24 Israel announced the arrest of a terr On Dec 25 the IAF destroyed a rocket launcher in the Gaza Strip after 11 rockets and numerous mortars were fired at Israel (Arutz) The Islamic Jihad fired 66 rockets to Israel in the first 2 weeks of Dec. compared with 65 for all of Nov. (D Alert) 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate, marked as UN SUGAR, has been intercepted on its way to Pal bomb makers.

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by Hillel Fendel
Nearly 2,300 Arabs from Gaza, among them Hamas terrorists who wish to avoid Israeli arrest, will be allowed to enter Gaza via Egypt - in direct opposition to an Israeli request. The Arabs, returning from a religious pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, spent the weekend aboard two luxury ferries at a port in the Red Sea between Egypt’s Sinai Desert and Saudi Arabia. The Arabs refused to return to Gaza via Israel, and demanded to pass through Egyptian-controlled Rafiah instead.

by Hillel Fendel
A new audio cassette, the fifth one issued by the Al-Qaeda international terrorist organization this year, tells the Arabs of Judea, Samaria and Gaza that they need not be concerned.

“I have not forgotten your struggle,” the reviled terrorist chieftain Osama Bin-Laden is heard saying, “and we plan to expand our Jihad [holy war] to Palestine as well. We intend to liberate all of Palestine, from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

by Ezra HaLevi
Arab terrorists fired eighteen Kassam rockets at Jewish towns in the western Negev Wednesday December 26. Gaza terrorists also fired five mortar shells toward western Negev communities Wednesday afternoon. IDF soldiers arrested 19 wanted terrorists overnight Wednesday. Arabs tried to kill an Israeli who entered an Arab area near Ramallah.

by Ezra HaLevi
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he has no intention of resigning following the upcoming publication of the conclusions of the Winograd Committee on the Second Lebanon War. The report, which has taken over a year to compile, will be published in the coming weeks. Politicians and pundits have operated on the assumption that the fall of the Kadima-led government would come about as a result of the committee’s findings

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni was quoted as telling a key Knesset committee on Monday:

“Egyptian actions in the war against smuggling in the Philadelphi Corridor are terrible and definitely have implications for future problems in the region, such as the arming of Hamas in Gaza.”

(Reuters)

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
IDF soldiers opened fire on two Arab men on Monday night December 24, near the Hareidi-religious city of Beitar Illit, a few miles south of Jerusalem. The men were attempting to infiltrate the city and were assumed to be terrorists. One of the suspects was wounded and taken to a Jerusalem hospital.

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Terrorist factions based in Damascus are working to convene a summit of all Palestinian Authority terrorist groups early next year. The meeting, in Syria, would also include the participation of several Arab states. The intention of the multi-party meeting is to promote unity among the various PA The initiative for the meeting came from two terrorist factions active in the PA but with headquarters in Syria.

by Ezra HaLevi
Out of Zion has come the world’s tiniest Bible, engraved in gold on silicon, to illustrate the science of nanotechnology. More than 300,000 words and 1,200,000 letters, including vowels have been placed on less than half a square millimeter, allowing the tiny Torah to fit inside the first dot of the first letter of a traditional Torah scroll.

by Hana Julian
Ten Iranian Jewish families - 40 Iranian Jews in all — began new lives Tuesday night December 25, when they came home to Israel. “How they were brought to Israel and information about who they are is classified information,” Jewish Agency spokesman Michael Jankelovitch said in an exclusive interview with Israel National News. Each migrant receives a grant of $10,000