In the wake of a spate of news stories which ran for several days in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune and hundreds of newspapers around the world reported the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed two Palestinian women in cold blood, which raised a storm of controversy.

According to the media accounts, an Israeli sniper fired at a Palestinian woman and her two daughters, killing them. In a second reported case, Israeli soldiers allegedly shot and killed an elderly person to entertain themselves.

However, leading Israeli legal authorities say, following an independent investigation, the alleged killings never occurred according to eyewitness testimonies.

These incidents were clarified in testimony provided by Danny Zamir, the head of the Rabin pre-military training academy, and were presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi.

Brig. Gen. Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division, as well as, Maj. Gen. Yoav Gallant, head of the IDF’s Southern Army Command, also received the investigation’s findings.

The brigade commander’s investigation affirmed the sniper’s claim he merely fired warning shots.

“I saw the woman and her daughters, and I shot warning shots,” the sniper said. “The commander came up to the roof and shouted at me, ‘Why did you shoot at them?’ I explained that I did not shoot at them, but I fired warning shots.”

Brigade officers suspect Palestinian fighters who remained in the lower story of a nearby house thought he had shot the women, which led to rumors the sniper had killed the mother and her two daughters.

Regarding the second reported incident, the investigation showed it never occurred.

An officer of an elite combat unit that fought deep in Palestinian territory told the Israeli media that “non-combatant civilians were killed without doubt. But there was no deliberate harm done to innocent civilians. I am fully convinced that there was no soldier who shot for no reason out of a desire for revenge. I don’t know of any such cases.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The Israel Air Force (IAF) is now establishing a new anti-aircraft battalion whose task will be to test the Iron Dome anti-ballistic missile system for intercepting Qassam and Grad rockets fired from Gaza Strip at Sderot and other communities in the western Negev.

The IAF said the battalion will install the system and begin training with it in about four months in tandem with the development of a new fighting doctrine intended to respond to the tactics employed by Palestinian terrorists when they launch their rockets.

A high-ranking Israeli security source said the system would be able to handle the short-range rocket threat of the Qassam and Grad rockets and could also deal with shells with a larger caliber. Advanced radar would locate the rocket and launch an interceptor missile at the incoming target once it is deployed.

The battalion will also received the Magic Wand antiballistic missile system, which will perform a similar role against rockets with ranges between 25 and 150 miles, currently under development.

Israeli Security officials believe that these two systems will significantly change how Israel deals with the terror organizations and prompt them to counter other threats against Israeli soldiers and residents in southern Israel.

“We’re very pleased by the pace and manner of development,” said one high-ranking security official. “The air force is a full partner in the progress of Rafael’s development and in the various simulations done at the factory.”

Another high-ranking Israeli security official said, “We are limited in what we can say about the system, but you could say that the many rocket barrages fired at Israel… helped Rafael to test and accelerate processes that usually are tested by simulations in the lab. We realized that the system being planned meets the expectations and standards set by the Defense Ministry and the fact is that foreign elements have already expressed an interest in the system, which constitutes a breakthrough in this sphere.”

Brig. Gen. Danny Gold, who heads research and development for the IAF, hinted a few weeks ago the Iron Dome system was being developed at a fifth of the time and a tenth of the price of similar systems.

It is believed that the system will be put into place after a major test is carried out in the next few months, after which the system will gradually become operational.

Most recently, a number of sites were chosen near Gaza where the system will be stationed as part of the initial deployment in respond to the rocket threat. In the second stage the system will be stationed in northern Israel to intercept mortar shells and Katyusha rockets from Lebanon.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Motivation to join the Israeli army’s leading fighting units is increasing.

Eighty-two percent of newly recruited soldiers this year asked as their first choice to enlist in combat units, said Israel Defense Forces IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi in the course of a visit to the central induction base in Tel Hashomer yesterday.

“We’re glad that we have more soldiers who are interested in enlisting in the combat units than we need,” said Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi.

The Israeli chief of staff emphasized the IDF Personnel Branch tries to comply with each and every soldier’s request and to enlist him or her in the unit of choice. That said, the IDF Personnel Branch said the rise in demand for combat service means less available slots to place the troops.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Yesterday morning, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) chief of the general staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, delivered a speech while visiting new IDF recruits where he affirmed his belief the soldiers under his command were part of a “moral and ideological army.”

“My impression of the operation is that the IDF acts morally in the highest way possible,” Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi said.

The chief of the general staff referred to the latest reports concerning the ethics of the IDF’s soldiers and said alleged individual indiscretions have been placed under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IDF Military Police.

“I don’t believe that soldiers serving in the IDF hurt civilians in cold blood, but we shall wait for the results of the investigation. The IDF is the most humane army in the world and operates according to the Spirit of the IDF and high moral standards of fighting. Isolated cases, if found to have taken place, will be dealt with individually,” Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi said. “As the chief of the general staff, I feel very proud to stand at the head of an army with such commanders and soldiers. Immediately after the operation, and as part of an existing tradition in the IDF, we carried out a thorough, professional process of drawing conclusions and lessons learned. This is important in order for us to operate correctly in the future.”

Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi went on to say Hamas, not the IDF, chose to center the fighting in heavily populated areas where civilians would find themselves in the crossfire during the Gaza operation.

“[They] chose, and not by chance, to fight in heavily populated areas, turned neighborhoods into war zones, schools to terror outposts and public facilities into weapon and munitions storage facilities,” he said. “The IDF’s operation was carried out inside populated areas and its mission was to fight those who fire at Israel, which is why we operated in the structured areas.”

He said Israel did everything it could to try to minimize civilian casualties by scattering Arabic-language leaflets throughout the Gaza Strip, used the Arabic-language press to warn them to stay clear of fighting areas and used warning shots in an effort to keep civilians away.

Addressing the issue of the release of the Israeli prisoner of war, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi said: “Unfortunately, Gilad has not returned to us yet. I see it as my obligation as his commander and as the obligation of every commander in this army to continue to operate for his return. Even at this hour, the efforts to bring him back continue in every way possible and it is not right to elaborate on the matter. Our mission is not complete until Gilad returns.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The history of the Jewish, Medieval Catholic and Muslim rule in the Holy Land and the ongoing fight for control is encapsulated by one site perched on the shore in the Town of Tiberius in the Upper Galilee.

Dr. Yosef Stepansky, former inspector of antiquities in the Eastern Galilee for the Israeli government, discussed his discovery of a Crusader citadel on the shore of the Sea of Galilee – the fall of which is crucial for understanding the story of the deterioration of Crusader rule in Israel.

An expert on Christian archaeological sites, Dr. Stepansky wrote the archaeological chapters of the nomination dossier for the Israeli government on early Christian sites around the Sea of Galilee that will soon be declared World Heritage sites.

It remains to be seen if his services will be used during Pope Benedict XVI’s May visit, but were his services to be called upon, it would not be without precedent, as he was called upon in 2000 to write a briefing for Pope John Paul II during his visit.

In his brief, Dr. Stepansky discussed the Galilean Dolmens – megalithic stone tombs dating from the Middle Bronze Age – which he identifies with the biblical narratives regarding giants called “Refaim” and with the giant bedstead of Iron, mentioned as the resting place of Og King of Bashan.

He has made important discoveries pertaining to early Christianity in the Galilee, including a stone lintel, inscribed with the names of the Christian Byzantine Emperor Constantine and his sons.

This lintel, currently in possession of a Druze man in the village of Maghar, is the only known inscription referring to the emperor in all of Israel.

Tiberius Crusader Castle: Time Capsule Of The Galilee

In 1187, Christian rule, which had lasted for the better part of a century, was about to end. The Christians and Muslims had been fighting over the same ground over and over, and Saladin, the Muslim ruler of Egypt and Syria wished to make his territory contiguous. This of course meant conquering Israel. Soon, he was provided with a cause for war in the form of Renaud of Chatillon, the Crusader prince of Antioch.

“The Crusaders and the Muslims played Ping-Pong for years, each invading the other’s territory, moving their borders back and forth. That was until Renaud of Chatillon started harassing Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca,” Dr. Stepansky said. “The final straw was when he set out from Aylah to raid the holy city. Saladin organized his forces and moved over the northern Jordan into Galilee.”

It was the Crusader citadel in Tiberius, perched on the shores of the Sea of Galilee that brought about the defeat of the Crusaders in the most significant battle in Israel in the past 1,000 years, the Battle of the Horns of Hittin.

When Saladin began to move into Israel, Raymond of Tripoli, the ruler of the Galilee, reported to King Guy of Jerusalem in Sepphoris, seeking his defending against the Muslim incursion. He left behind his wife Eschiva with a small garrison to defend his castle in Tiberius.

On July 2, 1187, Saladin broke through the walls of Tiberius and put siege to Raymond’s castle. Eschiva sent a messenger with a call to her husband and King Guy of Jerusalem. They now had a quandary. Should they march on Tiberius to break the siege or should they wait for Saladin to arrive, and meet him on ground of their own choosing?

Ultimately, the order of the Knights Templar, formed to protect Christian pilgrims from Muslim attack, ventured the opinion that it would be unbecoming of Christian knights to not attempt to rescue a princess, and they should march on Tiberius immediately. The king agreed.

He began to move on Tiberius in order to retake the town along with over 1,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. They marched through scorching heat and blazing sun, suffering greatly from thirst and dehydration. Two days later, on July 4, the Crusaders set up camp at Maskaneh on the slopes of the Horns of Hittin, near the modern day Golani Junction.

It was then that Saladin made his move. In the morning, the Muslims attacked. Amid great blood and suffering, the mostly Frankish knights, suffering greatly from their lack of water, were defeated. King Guy was taken prisoner and brought before Saladin, where he was shown mercy, though Saladin personally killed Renaud of Chatillon by the sword.

There were to be other Crusades and the Christians maintained a presence in the holy land until 1291, but it was the beginning of the end. Christian rule in the holy land had been shattered in one decisive battle.

In the years following, the exact location of the Tiberius Citadel was lost.

Beneath Grandmother’s House

In 2002, Dr. Stepansky uncovered the citadel’s gate and moat, ending years of scholarly debate.

Until his discovery, the prevailing view was the castle had been built uphill, away from the water. There had been some who started arguing in the 1970s that a lakeside location was more probable, but it was impossible to verify without actually finding and uncovering the structure.

In the 1950s, the nascent Jewish state, in an attempt at urban renewal, bulldozed the Old City of Tiberius. The Old City could more accurately be termed the “renewed city,” having been built up and settled by Sepharadi (Eastern) Jews in the 18th century.

One of the structures destroyed was the house in which Dr. Stepansky’s grandmother had been born.

In the early 2000s, the Israeli government again decided to embark on a project of urban renewal. The tourism ministry put plans on the table to develop the area, but was forced to wait while the antiquities authority carried out a pre-development survey, a practice very common in Israel.

This is where Dr. Stepansky came in. Doing a routine dig at the site, he discovered one of the most significant archaeological finds of the early 21st century, right below the location of his old family home.

Because of this discovery, which is an integral part of the story of the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, he was invited to lecture in Germany and his scholarly article on the Citadel was translated and included in the definitive work on Crusader castles, “Burgen und Stadte der Kreuzugszeit” (Castles and Cities in the Crusades).

“When I lectured in Germany, people were most interested and jealous of the castle I found, even though it still has yielded small remains relative to the other castles found so far. Yet it was a source of jealousy that I could do what is rare and excavate underneath the house that my grandmother was born in.” Dr. Stepansky said.

Cycle Of History

There were stones used by the Crusaders in building their citadel that were originally part of an ancient synagogue. What one can discern if they look carefully is a window into the history of Israel itself. One can see a Crusader castle, built on the ruins of an independent Judea, conquered by the Muslims and later excavated by a reborn Jewish nation in its homeland, all of this underneath a little lot where the grandmother of the man who discovered the site lived.

As Dr. Stepansky put it, “[This] is the climax of this series of history.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Documentation showing the Palestinian Authority (PA) routinely transfers American, European and Israeli aid monies to Hamas and harbors terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade has a prominent local congressman calling for tighter congressional oversight.

U.S. Rep. Joseph A. Sestak Jr., D-7th, says Congress has too often passed the buck to the Executive Branch when it comes to overseeing how the monies are distributed, especially in the light of the 2007 Mecca revenue-sharing agreement between the PA and Hamas, which is still in force. The agreement established financial ties between the PA and Hamas, an organization the U.S. government lists as a terrorist organization, whereby the former pays the latter’s civil servants and military forces.

Recently, new documentation has surfaced that U.S.-backed Palestinian security forces on the West Bank had confessed to having harbored Islamic Jihad terrorists, which highlighted the PA’s lack of enthusiasm when it comes to cracking down on terrorists.

He says only congressional oversight hearings into the reported abuses of U.S. aid to the Palestinians can give the American public and the world the answers they need about how the money is being spent.

“We should have accountability to ensure the money goes to the Palestinian people and organizations such as UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) are held accountable,” Mr. Sestak said. “Having money siphoned off is something we can’t abide by, and it is not something that American taxpayers want.”

Assisting those who are in need of material aid is something Mr. Sestak says is a basic American ideal, but it isn’t something that should be done without strings attached or close oversight to ensure those who need the aid actually receive it.

“It is an important issue that money flows to the Palestinian people and that we deal with organizations that don’t deal with Hamas,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority is a difficult issue because there needs to be a fine balance.”

Corruption has long been a serious problem for the PA, evidenced by allegations Yasser Arafat amassed a multibillion fortune during his 40 years at the helm of the ruling Fatah movement – money that has yet to be accounted for.

If the U.S. can’t work with the UNRWA because of evidence it allows Hamas and other Palestinian groups to infiltrate it and divert the aid for nefarious purposes, Mr. Sestak said the U.S. should find other groups to work with groups such as the Red Cross/Red Crescent to deliver the aid free from Hamas interference.

Mr. Sestak says lessons in accountability from the Iraq war related to publicized contractor abuses and misappropriation of funds is just as applicable with the Palestinians. The abuse of funds by contractors such as Kellogg, Brown & Root, he said, showed what can happen when Congress abdicates its oversight responsibilities to the Executive Branch. The firm overcharged the Pentagon to the tune of $1 billion according to a 2005 audit.

“On the subcommittee I am on, we do required oversight for Iraq once a month, and the problem with foreign aid is we don’t do enough,” he said. “The challenge we had with the execution of things in Iraq [in the beginning] was there wasn’t enough oversight.

“We have to make sure the public is informed and there is transparent accountability.”

He believes having America play a strong role in the Middle East is the answer to many of the incitements the PA has shown toward Israel. These have included using Israeli-provided frequencies to broadcast pro-terror anti-Israel programming on the PA-run Palestinian Broadcasting Company (PBC), which is directly answerable to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. The PBC also routinely calls for the “liberation” all of the former British Mandate of Palestine from Israeli control.

Additionally, the public relations agencies that promote the pa provide a seemingly moderate image for the PA in English and in other languages, while its leaders turn around and continue to spout virulent anti-Israel rhetoric that praise terrorists and call for Palestinians to liberate all of Palestine and destroy Israel in Arabic. The PA’s message, in Arabic, to its own people goes virtually ignored.

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Sept. 13, 1993 promise to annul portions of its charter calling for the destruction of Israel stand as a prime example because the Palestinian National Council (PNC) never ratified the agreement. An Arabic-language video tape and transcript of the April 26, 1996 PNC session that was supposed to have annulled the PLO’s call for Israel’s destruction show no such action happened.

Instead, Arafat altered the PNC’s meeting agenda and deleted the paragraph, which would have rescinded the call for Israel’s destruction.

“We have been the missing element for far too long, and we have been absent in the region with our leadership,” Mr. Sestak said. “We are the strongest ally of Israel, and what President [George W.] Bush did at the Annapolis Conference should have been done all along… We have been outsourcing our leadership to the European Union for far too long.

“It doesn’t work when you don’t have an accountable police force and one side is broadcasting [inflammatory material]. It just doesn’t hold.”

Mr. Sestak sees an analogy between the Palestinian-Israeli situation and the one that existed during the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union because the latter frequently engaged in similar deceptions that were put into check by American determination. He said he believes the U.S. should no more abandon the peace process any more than it abandoned the nuclear reduction talks with the Soviet Union, which ultimately proved successful.

“When we were sitting at the table with the our translators with the Soviets, we could tell when they were mistranslating for us,” he said. “With the Soviet Union, it was not dissimilar. When there was a different nuance on what we agreed upon, we didn’t walk away. We worked hard.”

He said a carrot-and-stick approach needs to be employed with the Palestinians to force them to act in good faith, rewarding them when they keep their word and sanctioning them when they do otherwise.

“We need to protect Israel at all costs, but we need to work as an honest broker,” Mr. Sestak said.

As a result, he said, the U.S. needs to ensure that both sides are participants in the process, rather than having a U.S. administration dictating terms without their participation.

“We are the ones appropriating the money, and before we let the Executive Branch see how well the money is being appropriated,” Mr. Sestak said. “We should be doing a lot more; we should be doing a lot better job at counterterrorism and a much better job showing how contracts get executed.

“Congress has a bigger role to play.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com and John Rossomando can be reached at jrossomando@thebulletin.us

In an afternoon press conference yesterday, Israeli police described how a large-scale terror attack was prevented in Haifa on Saturday night. They described a car containing 220 lbs. of explosives, found parked in a parking lot near a Haifa shopping center, which was discovered when one of the bombs detonated.

No one was injured in the blast. Police are in the process of learning whether the car, which was registered to a female Jerusalem resident, had been stolen.

Thousands of people were in that Haifa shopping mall at that time, mulling about the stores, restaurants and movie theaters.

The police swiftly sealed the parking lot and called in the sappers (bomb squad).

It took the sappers a long time to defuse the bomb. Meanwhile, other police forces sealed all access to the mall, scoured the area for additional bombs and evacuated the thousands of people from the stores, restaurants and movie theaters. Many people panicked during the evacuation, which was carried out in keeping with standard Israeli emergency regulations. Had the first bomb not prematurely detonated, matters could have potentially been a lot worse.

The Israeli police spokespeople said that they believe that the attack had been intended to have been carried out on Saturday night when the mall was packed with visitors.

Israeli police are examining a number of possible angles in their investigation.

One avenue of investigation is whether the intention was that the bombs that were found in the car were supposed to have been divided up among a number of terrorists who were then to take them into various parts of the mall and other locations in northern Israel.

“We had a really big miracle here that they succeeded in neutralizing the bomb that was in the car,” a police sapper said. “If, God forbid, the bomb had gone off, the entire body of the car and its engine would have become pieces of metal shrapnel that would have been blown dozens if not hundreds of [feet] from the site of the explosion. That could have caused destruction and the death of lots of people in a large radius from the site of the explosion.”

Yesterday, a heightened state of alert was declared in the Israel Police Northern District lest there be another attempted attack in the area under the district’s supervision. The state of alert was also raised in all malls across northern Israel. All day yesterday, helicopters hovered in the air of northern Israel while roadblocks were setup in an attempt to try to ward off terrorists.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

India has purchased a spy satellite manufactured by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and plans to launch it into space in April.

The advanced satellite will help India defend itself against terror attacks of the kind that were carried out in Mumbai last November.

The news of the satellite purchase was reported by Indian sources, prompting reports in the Indian and international medias. According to the reports, India bought the satellite because of pressure from the Indian army following the Mumbai terror attacks.

India has spy satellites, but they are effective only during daylight conditions and are ineffective at night or under poor weather conditions.

The Indian NDTV station reported the Risat-2 satellite, which weighs 280 pounds, would be launched by an Indian Polaris rocket, which was also used to carry the Israeli Tecsar satellite into space last year.

All reports indicate that the new, advanced satellite is fitted with a special radar, capable of identifying targets on the ground, even in the dark, inclement weather and during sand storms.

The Indians charge the terrorists who committed the attacks in Mumbai arrived by boat from Pakistan, and an effective spy satellite would have allowed them to identify the boat long in advance.

India’s decision to buy an advanced spy satellite from Israel raises security links between Israel and India to a new level. This marks the first time that Israel has been reported to have exported a spy satellite.

The deal places IAI in a small and very select club of spy satellite manufacturers and exporters. The other spy satellite manufacturers, such as the United States and Russia, are not prepared to sell their satellites to foreign countries.

According to other security reports in India, IAI is currently developing a surface-to-air missile for India. It has also purchased unmanned aerial vehicles, and there are a number of other deals that are in advanced stages.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Iran could encounter difficulty in maintaining its military aid to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, according to a report issued by the Israel Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.

“As opposed to Lebanon, however, Iran will face greater difficulties in supporting Hamas in the Gaza Strip once the dust settles,” the report titled “Hamas,” said. “That is because Iran has no direct access to the Gazan border – as opposed to good access to Lebanon though its wide-open border with Syria – and an arrangement may be reached at the end of the fighting that will lead to closer supervision along the Egypt-Gaza border.”

The report, in contrast to the assurances of the Israeli government, said Iran and Hamas, however, would overcome difficulties to renew the flow of weapons to the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli intelligence center said Hamas has sought extended-range Iranian rockets to strike major cities in Israel.

“As in the past, both Iran and Hamas are expected to be creative to overcome the difficulties and to ensure a renewed flow of weapons to the Gaza Strip, especially long-range rockets, which will renew the rocket threat and Hamas and Iran’s ability to threaten the million people living in Israel’s south,” the report said. “They also aspire to include new zones in the range of fire, up to at least [37 miles], i.e., Tel Aviv.”

The report said Iran has sent hundreds of M-21 Grad rockets, with ranges of between 15 and 30 miles.

Iran, through the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Intelligence Ministry, also received advanced Iranian anti-tank missiles and technology to produce the Shawaz improvised explosive device.

“The rockets with a [30 mile-] range Iran supplied to Hamas are apparently identical to those it supplied to Hezbollah and were fired during the second Lebanon war,” the report said. “Hamas now aspires to include other Israeli cities in its rocket range, including Tel Aviv.”

Hamas’ military buildup in the Gaza Strip has been directed by Hamas headquarters in Damascus, Syria, headed by Khaled Mashal, the report said.

The report said the buildup has focused on rockets and mortars and IEDs in an effort similar to that of Hezbollah in 2006. Hezbollah was said to have engaged in weapons smuggling for Hamas.

“Iran has also transmitted the technological know-how that enables Hamas to increase the range of the rockets it manufactures,” the report said. “In addition, standard rockets enable Hamas to increase its attack range and cause more accurate and greater destruction than its homemade rockets.”

In 2008, Hamas was said to have received at least $150 million from Tehran and was said to have received large quantities of the Grad rocket. In February, Hamas fired 18 such rockets toward the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

The report said the latest rocket contains a motor comprised of four sections; Iran modified the rocket specifically to enable its dismantling for smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.

“In the Middle East, there are some countries which manufacture such rockets, including Iran and Syria,” the report said. “In our assessment, Iran initiated the technological adaptation to make it easier to dismantle the rockets for smuggling into the Gaza Strip for Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.”

The report said the extended-range rocket reached a distance of 27 miles.

The intelligence center said the rockets were manufacturing in China and supplied to Hamas by Iran. In all, about 100 such rockets were fired during the 22-day Hamas-Israel war.

“They can reach a maximum range of 30 miles, and later the same type of rocket fell in the cities of Beersheba and Ashdod,” the report said.

The report said Iran has helped Hamas develop and manufacture every level of rocket and mortar capability.

Iran has also helped Hamas manufacture so-called explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), designed to penetrate steel. The EFPs, which contain advanced detonators, were meant to block any Israeli armored advance in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas was also said to have deployed the Raad anti-tank missile, an Iranian copy of the Soviet-origin Sagger, as well as the Konkurs, based on the AF-5. The report said Hamas also received anti-tank weapons with tandem warheads.

“Iran smuggled weapons to Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip by sea, air and overland, through the Persian Gulf, Syria, the North African countries and the Horn of Africa,” the report said. “From Sinai they were smuggled into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels dug under the Egypt-Gaza border or overland when the border crossing was breached at the beginning of 2008. The tunnel industry flourished as soon as the lull arrangement went into effect in June 2008, and the Egyptian preventive actions were ineffective.”

Other intelligence sources have confirmed the Iranians have developed special rafts for landing missiles on the Gaza coast where they cannot be detected by Israeli radar.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

The Middle East Newsline has obtained a report from Israel Security Agency, the ISA, which has determined that al-Qaida has been expanding its operations around Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. In an assessment, the ISA, the nation’s domestic intelligence agency, said al-Qaida has been recruiting Palestinian and Israeli operatives through the Internet.

“Al-Qaida has become more successful in gaining popular and operational strength in the area,” an ISA official said.

In its annual summary, ISA did not elaborate on the growth of al-Qaida. The report said al -Qaida was becoming increasingly successful in influencing young people, particularly students in Israel and the West Bank.

In 2008, nearly a dozen Israeli Arabs and Palestinian Arabs were indicted on charges of participating in al-Qaida plots to attack Israeli and U.S. targets. The targets were said to have included the helicopter used by President George W. Bush during his visit in May 2008.

The ISA has pointed to the rise of the Hizb Al Tahrir movement. Hizb al-Tahrir, aligned with al-Qaida, has been spreading rapidly both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and has been portrayed as an alternative to Hamas.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com