IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday that Arab terrorists from Gaza are able to bypass the elaborate high-tech security barrier separating Gaza from Israel by penetrating the country via the border with Egypt.
The Israeli-Egyptian border between the Negev and the Sinai desert, hundreds of miles long, mostly unfenced, and largely unprotected, has become a haven for smuggling weapons, drugs, and criminals into Israel. Terrorist infiltrators from Gaza can temporarily blend in with the local Arab population, which numbers in the tens of thousands, providing a springboard for attack.
Halutz said, however, that since beefing up patrols, terrorist and criminal activity on the border has dropped by 50%.
The border between Gaza and Egypt has also become a focal point for terrorist operations. The Chief IDF Operations Officer told the committee that terrorists are smuggling untold quantities of weapons and ammunition into Gaza via tunnels dug under the Egyptian border and via the sea, despite vigorous efforts by the IDF to curtail the phenomenon.
In a related development, PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas is considering a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to deploy Egyptian troops in Gaza as a means to quell violent clashes between the Hamas and Fatah terrorist organizations. Israel liberated Gaza from Egypt 39 years ago, and ruled the district until withdrawing unilaterally last August.
Halutz also said the IDF was concentrating efforts to prevent terrorist infiltration along the numerous crossing points set up along the security barrier between Judea and Samaria and Israel’s densely populated, industrialized center.
The crossing points are used primarily by over a quarter of a million Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria. Intensified scrutiny at the points in recent days has been responsible for causing widespread traffic delays and frustration among that population.
Knesset Members of the National Union party asked Halutz to reduce the delays at the crossing points, and Halutz said he would make an effort to do so.
Regarding the Iranian nuclear threat, Halutz ostensibly contradicted the prime minister’s assessment that Iran was only months away from acquiring the capability to make a bomb. Halutz told the committee that Iran will not have a nuclear bomb until the end of the decade.
The Israeli-Egyptian border between the Negev and the Sinai desert, hundreds of miles long, mostly unfenced, and largely unprotected, has become a haven for smuggling weapons, drugs, and criminals into Israel. Terrorist infiltrators from Gaza can temporarily blend in with the local Arab population, which numbers in the tens of thousands, providing a springboard for attack.
Halutz said, however, that since beefing up patrols, terrorist and criminal activity on the border has dropped by 50%.
The border between Gaza and Egypt has also become a focal point for terrorist operations. The Chief IDF Operations Officer told the committee that terrorists are smuggling untold quantities of weapons and ammunition into Gaza via tunnels dug under the Egyptian border and via the sea, despite vigorous efforts by the IDF to curtail the phenomenon.
In a related development, PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas is considering a proposal by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to deploy Egyptian troops in Gaza as a means to quell violent clashes between the Hamas and Fatah terrorist organizations. Israel liberated Gaza from Egypt 39 years ago, and ruled the district until withdrawing unilaterally last August.
Halutz also said the IDF was concentrating efforts to prevent terrorist infiltration along the numerous crossing points set up along the security barrier between Judea and Samaria and Israel’s densely populated, industrialized center.
The crossing points are used primarily by over a quarter of a million Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria. Intensified scrutiny at the points in recent days has been responsible for causing widespread traffic delays and frustration among that population.
Knesset Members of the National Union party asked Halutz to reduce the delays at the crossing points, and Halutz said he would make an effort to do so.
Regarding the Iranian nuclear threat, Halutz ostensibly contradicted the prime minister’s assessment that Iran was only months away from acquiring the capability to make a bomb. Halutz told the committee that Iran will not have a nuclear bomb until the end of the decade.