Terror isn’t Kosher.
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PA declares state of emergency in Gaza
The state of emergency was declared on the backdrop of fierce clashes between PA police and armed Hamas men in the northern part of the Strip.
Palestinian sources reported that a PA police force opened fire at a car carrying a number of Hamas activists, who were on their way to carry out more rocket launches at Israeli targets. The driver of the car ignored orders to pull over, and the PA police opened fire on the vehicle, wounding six of its occupants, one seriously.
In response, Hamas sent dozens of armed men out into the street of northern Gaza in a show of strength, which included the firing of an RPG at a base of the PA’s national security forces. Clashes between Hamas militants and PA police also took place in other areas of the Strip.
A state of emergency was subsequently declared by PA Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, in coordination with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. PA police reinforcements were deployed to the north of the Strip and curfews were imposed on a number of areas.
All in all yesterday, some 20 Qassam rockets and mortars were fired at Gaza Strip settlements, Israeli communities close to the Strip and Israel Defense Forces outposts. The firing intensified in the afternoon, and a little after 6 P.M. a volley of four rockets was launched in the direction of Netiv Ha’asara. Glakowitz, who was sitting on the porch of her home, was critically hurt in the blast and pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Another two Israelis were lightly hurt in the incident.
Defense establishment officials believe that the Hamas attack came in response to two developments - the visit yesterday to the Strip by Abbas, and the escalation in the West Bank, where the IDF has been operating for the past two days, in Tul Karm and Nablus. During previous visits by Abbas to the Strip, the PA leader was challenged by Hamas by means of attacks on Israel.
Abbas is in the Strip in an effort to persuade Hamas, Islamic Jihad and a number of militant Fatah factions to stop the attacks on Israeli targets and return to the period of security calm agreed on by the Palestinian organizations. Abbas, who is supposed to be staying in the Strip for about a week, arrived there on the backdrop of increasing tension between the PA and the various factions with regard to the manner in which the Strip will be controlled following the Israeli pullout.
The various Palestinian factions are refusing to recognize the PA’s exclusivity when it comes to governing the Strip, and they are demanding that the area be run by a committee comprising representatives of all the organizations. Abbas had summoned the leaders of the organizations to a series of meetings that were to take place over the coming days, with Egyptian mediation, but in light of last night’s developments, these meetings have been cancelled for now.
A PA security source defined the situation in the Strip as “an explosive charge on the verge of going off.”
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held consultations last night with senior army officers to discuss possible responses to the escalation in the Gaza Strip. It appeared last night that an Israeli operation will be relatively restrained.
A senior officer told Haaretz that the option of mounting an extensive operation in the areas from which the rockets and mortars are being launched did indeed exist, but that a large-scale military operation in PA territory would affect the implementation of the disengagement plan, and Israel had no interest in upping the military tension with the Palestinians.