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Israel has determined that the Palestinian Authority has falsely claimed to have foiled Palestinian insurgency attacks against Israel.
Israeli security sources said PA claims of insurgency attacks thwarted or the capture of operatives over the last few weeks have been mostly fictitious. The sources said an examination of the PA assertions found no evidence of insurgency plots against Israel.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has reported success by his security agencies in stopping insurgency attacks against Israel. Abbas has told the United States that dozens of attacks were thwarted by PA agencies since February, when he declared a ceasefire.
“Either Abu Mazen [Abbas] is lying straight out and this would mean that he no longer has credibility,” an Israeli security source said. “Or, Abu Mazen is being told lies and he is relaying them to the Americans.”
[On Wednesday, Palestinian gunners fired Kassam-class short-range missiles and mortars toward an Israeli rally of an estimated 60,000 people in the central Gaza Strip. Nobody was injured.]
The Israeli sources said PA agencies have done little to stop insurgency attacks against Israel. They said PA police and security forces have not halted missile, mortar or rocket attacks against Israeli civilian and military targets in either the Gaza Strip or in the Jewish state.
“In the last three weeks, Palestinian terrorists have fired three Kassam missiles, six mortar shells and an anti-tank missile,” a security source said. “Ten explosive devices have been uncovered and detonated, and fire was opened toward Israeli communities and Israeli Defense Force units in more than 30 different incidents.”
The PA has in some cases found and shut down tunnels used for the smuggling of weapons and explosives from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to the southern Gaza Strip. But the sources said PA officials have warned smugglers of impending Israeli military operations and coordinated the closing of tunnels with arms merchants. The merchants then diverted the smuggling to other tunnels.
Israeli security sources said PA security commanders have also failed to follow up on Israeli alerts of impending insurgency attacks. The sources said the PA has refused to provide Israel with intelligence on insurgency groups, rather has handed over bombs or weapons said to have been captured from insurgents.
This report ran on the Middle East News Line on April 28th, 2005
