The quiet along the border with Egypt was violated yesterday once again. An IDF NCO who serves with the Engineering Corps was severely injured and an Israeli civilian was moderately injured yesterday afternoon from shots that were fired at them near the Hardon outpost on Philadelphi Road, which runs along the Israeli-Egyptian border. The two were taken by ambulance and helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva.

IDF officials said they believed that the shots were fired by a Palestinian sniper from a few hundred meters distance. The two were doing infrastructure work on the new wall being erected currently along Philadelphi Road. The work is being done under cover of armor that was set up on the scene precisely to prevent this kind of sniper fire.

The Salah A-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, assumed responsibility for the attack, saying it was in response to the death of the three Palestinian children in Rafah and in response to the killing of the Fatah activist in Nablus on Thursday.

In the aftermath of the incident, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon said yesterday at a conference on the army and society in Herzliya: “We have signs in the past number of weeks that terrorism is on the rise. We may see only few terror attacks until disengagement, but immediately after disengagement we are liable to see an outburst of the terror organizations, particularly in Judea and Samaria. Abu Mazen needs to be demanded to deal with this now.”

The Israel chief of staff further said: “Let no one think that the Messiah is going to come along with disengagement. Immediately after disengagement we can anticipate another outburst. All of the signs currently indicate as much, unless Abu Mazen takes action against the organizations.”

IDF officials tell of an escalation in violence in the Gaza recently. In the last week there were three times as many violent incidents in the Gaza Strip in comparison to the initial weeks after the tahdiya was declared. According to data compiled by the Gaza Division, in an average week there are between seven and eight incidents recorded, whereas in the course of the current week 27 separate terrorist incidents were recorded-an increase of more than 300% in the number of terror attacks, which include sniper fire, planting bombs and mortar shell fire.

IDF officials said that this is a substantial erosion of the cease-fire that stems from a reduced level of activity by the Palestinian Authority to prevent terrorism. The military officials warned that the period of calm might soon collapse. At issue is a dramatic rise in the number of incidents that is coupled with inaction by the Palestinian Authority, which has done nothing to stop them. “The cease-fire is fragile,” warn the military officials.

IDF officials explained that this was a problem in dealing with the Palestinian Authority, since “the Popular Resistance Committees see that the PA is not acting against them, so they continue. Things can’t go on this way, our patience is waning. The PA has to act against the organizations immediately, because the cease-fire is in real danger.”

[Ma’ariv added: [.] IDF officials warned that the Palestinians are not trying to prevent the situation from deteriorating, while Israel security forces are not allowed to operate inside Palestinian territory. “The cease-fire is gradually eroding,” said a Southern Command official. “We have not yet returned to the situation before the calm, in which there were about 100 incidents a week, but we could return to this situation.” IDF officials referred to the political echelon in Jerusalem as the only element capable of putting pressure on the Palestinian Authority and PA Chairman Abu Mazen, as pressure by the IDF on Commander of Palestinian Security Forces in the Gaza Strip Moussa Arafat is not enough.

In the weeks that have passed since calm was declared at the beginning of February, there are nine incidents every week on average of fighting in the Gaza Strip. This was a decline of about 90% compared to the situation up until January, during which every week there were about 100 incidents. Southern Command officials said they believed that prior to disengagement, the number of terror incidents during evacuation will be similar to before the quiet. [.]

Military sources said that until the incident yesterday, no senior Israel officials had noticed the sharp increase in gunfire incidents, nor did they take action to stop the trend. “The IDF is not permitted to operate in Palestinian territory, but someone has to operate there,” said a military source in frustration. “The Palestinians allow the Popular Resistance Committees to operate without hindrance.” [.] ]

These pieces ran on April 19th, 2005 in Yediot Ahronot and Maariv

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