PA Smugglers In Full Cooperation With Israeli Intelligence? MI Knows No "Tie-Breaker Weaponry" Smuggled

2005-09-21

[IMRA: This is not a parody intended to demonstrate that "military intelligence" is a contradition in terms. Research Division commander Brigadier General Yossi Kupervasser told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Wednesday that there was "no basis" to the fears that the long-range "tie-breaker" arms had entered the Strip and had reached the hands of terrorist organizations. - does Israeli military intelligence expect the Palestinian smuggler to dutifully report back to them with a detailed inventory of what was smuggled through?]

IDF: No 'tie-breaker' arms were smuggled into Gaza

Gideon Alon and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

www.haaretz.com/hasen/ spages/627551.html

Despite fears to the contrary, powerful "tie-breaker weaponry," such as long-range Katyusha rockets and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, was not smuggled into the Gaza Strip when the Egyptian border was left largely open in the days following the Israeli withdrawal, the head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Division said Wednesday.

Last week security officials had voiced concerns that such "tie-breaker weaponry" had been passed over the border, possibly also including anti-tank missiles. The officials said that it was known for certain that hundreds of rifles and large quantities of ammunition had reached Gaza during that period.

Opponents of the disengagement had long warned that Katusha rockets smuggled into Gaza could be used to strike at Ashkelon and the suburbs of Tel Aviv, and that Strela anti-aircraft missiles could pose a threat to civilian airliners approaching and leaving Israel.

But Research Division commander Brigadier General Yossi Kupervasser told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Wednesday that there was "no basis" to the fears that the long-range "tie-breaker" arms had entered the Strip and had reached the hands of terrorist organizations.

PA: border to be opened over the weekend

On Tuesday, a top Palestinian security official announced the Gaza-Egypt border would be opened over the weekend to allow some Palestinians to cross.

Israel shut the Rafah crossing before it withdrew its troops from Gaza last week, saying that people and cargo traveling over the border would be temporarily routed through Israeli-controlled crossings, so it could ensure no weapons or militants entered Gaza.

After the Israeli pullout, the border exploded in chaos, with thousands of Palestinians and Egyptians clamoring over the wall to visit the other side.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that despite renovation work at the crossing, the Palestinians did not plan to open the crossing in the absence of an agreement with Israel.

However, Palestinian National Security Adviser Jibril Rajoub said the border would be briefly opened over the weekend to allow Palestinians with special needs to cross.

A senior Israeli official said Israel would not object to the temporary opening. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment on policy, said humanitarian concerns were discussed with Egypt, and Israel "would try to accommodate them."

Palestinians toast Israeli pullback in West Bank

Palestinians fired in the air and honked car horns early Wednesday, after Israeli troops pulled out of the last of four abandoned West Bank settlements, completing the final phase of the withdrawal it began in Gaza last month.

The final Israeli exit came after sundown Tuesday, when a few army vehicles left the empty settlements of Ganim and Kadim, next to the West Bank town of Jenin. Within minutes, thousands of celebrating Palestinians stormed in, setting rubble ablaze as gunmen fired in the air - reprising the scenes in Gaza when Israel completed its pullout there last week.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis