A battle erupted between Israeli soldiers and P.A. gunmen in Tul Karem this afternoon. Heavy exchanges of fire were reported... An IDF force found a workshop for the production of Kassam rocket in Gaza City last night, and blew it up in a controlled explosion. The IDF Spokesman notes that two Kassam rockets were fired during the past week at Israeli communities... IDF forces arrested five suspected Palestinian terrorists last night in several villages in Judea... A woman was lightly injured last night when Arabs stoned her car at the Yakir Junction in Shomron... IDF soldiers found a bomb between Morag and Narkis in Gush Katif, and the road was closed until the bomb could be neutralized...
“Arafat is not ready to disband the Tanzim nor to reduce his military forces. Similarly, he is not ready to put real pressure on the more militant groups, chief among them Hamas, to stop their terrorist activities. That means that the terrorism will continue,” said Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze’evi, head of IDF military intelligence this week. His statements were made at a Tel Aviv University seminar in memory of Maj.-Gen. Aharon Yariv.
Ze’evi emphasized that since Operation Defensive Shield, PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s position has been damaged in the Arab world. “The Arab regimes, chief among them Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have begun to perceive Arafat as a real threat to regional stability and to their own regimes. The desire for change has increased,” he said. The operation, Ze’evi said, put a halt to the wave of suicide bombings, and the current situation is “very, very far from the terrorist wave of March 2002…” Ze\'evi feels that a momentum has been created allowing Israel to enter anywhere, as needed, to fight the renewed PLO terrorism.
“Arafat is not ready to disband the Tanzim nor to reduce his military forces. Similarly, he is not ready to put real pressure on the more militant groups, chief among them Hamas, to stop their terrorist activities. That means that the terrorism will continue,” said Maj.-Gen. Aharon Ze’evi, head of IDF military intelligence this week. His statements were made at a Tel Aviv University seminar in memory of Maj.-Gen. Aharon Yariv.
Ze’evi emphasized that since Operation Defensive Shield, PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s position has been damaged in the Arab world. “The Arab regimes, chief among them Egypt and Saudi Arabia, have begun to perceive Arafat as a real threat to regional stability and to their own regimes. The desire for change has increased,” he said. The operation, Ze’evi said, put a halt to the wave of suicide bombings, and the current situation is “very, very far from the terrorist wave of March 2002…” Ze\'evi feels that a momentum has been created allowing Israel to enter anywhere, as needed, to fight the renewed PLO terrorism.