pictured: a previous bombing in Afula
It was reported today that a Kassam rocket had landed near an Israeli community near Afula three weeks ago. it was the first time a rocket fired from the Shomron had hit a target in Israel-proper.
Security experts had long warned that the unilateral withdrawal from northern Samaria would allow terrorists to develop Kassam-rocket capabilities against central Israel.
Gilboa Regional Council chief Danny Atar complained that he had not been informed of the attack in real-time, and was forced to learn of it today via the media. However, the news item actually appeared three weeks ago on Arutz-7, which reported on Dec. 12, "Fatah said it fired a Kassam rocket last night at a town near Afula in the Jezreel Valley... The Al-Aksa Brigades, the military arm of Fatah, released an announcement that on Sunday evening, a Jenin-1 Kassam rocket was fired towards an Israeli community west of Jenin."
It is an open secret that the Palestinian terrorist organizations have been working feverishly over the past number of years to build rocket-firing infrastructures in the northern Shomron. Hamas terrorists Kayis Adwan and Said Awad built a rocket factory in Shechem four years ago, and succeeded in firing two rockets from Tul Karem. Their efforts were laid to waste during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield of May 2002, when the two terrorists and many others were killed and the manufacturing infrastructure was destroyed.
In March of this year, the IDF and the Shabak (General Security Service) discovered another Kassam manufacturing operation, in the Jenin region. The Hamas facility was hidden in a secret room 15 feet below a metal works shop, and contained seven pipe bombs, chemicals and explosives - and a completed Kassam rocket, as well as others in various stages of preparation. The factory was located in a village that came under full PA control after Israel's unilateral withdrawal last summer.
Security experts warned throughout the months before Sharon implemented his Disengagement Plan that the northern Shomron was likely to become even more dangerous than Gaza. General Security Service Chief Avi Dichter - who has since joined Sharon's Kadima party - said that the area would become “Fatah-land." The Shomron area that has now come under full PA control is some 700 square kilometers (270 square miles), approximately double that of the entire Gaza Strip.
It was reported today that a Kassam rocket had landed near an Israeli community near Afula three weeks ago. it was the first time a rocket fired from the Shomron had hit a target in Israel-proper.
Security experts had long warned that the unilateral withdrawal from northern Samaria would allow terrorists to develop Kassam-rocket capabilities against central Israel.
Gilboa Regional Council chief Danny Atar complained that he had not been informed of the attack in real-time, and was forced to learn of it today via the media. However, the news item actually appeared three weeks ago on Arutz-7, which reported on Dec. 12, "Fatah said it fired a Kassam rocket last night at a town near Afula in the Jezreel Valley... The Al-Aksa Brigades, the military arm of Fatah, released an announcement that on Sunday evening, a Jenin-1 Kassam rocket was fired towards an Israeli community west of Jenin."
It is an open secret that the Palestinian terrorist organizations have been working feverishly over the past number of years to build rocket-firing infrastructures in the northern Shomron. Hamas terrorists Kayis Adwan and Said Awad built a rocket factory in Shechem four years ago, and succeeded in firing two rockets from Tul Karem. Their efforts were laid to waste during Israel's Operation Defensive Shield of May 2002, when the two terrorists and many others were killed and the manufacturing infrastructure was destroyed.
In March of this year, the IDF and the Shabak (General Security Service) discovered another Kassam manufacturing operation, in the Jenin region. The Hamas facility was hidden in a secret room 15 feet below a metal works shop, and contained seven pipe bombs, chemicals and explosives - and a completed Kassam rocket, as well as others in various stages of preparation. The factory was located in a village that came under full PA control after Israel's unilateral withdrawal last summer.
Security experts warned throughout the months before Sharon implemented his Disengagement Plan that the northern Shomron was likely to become even more dangerous than Gaza. General Security Service Chief Avi Dichter - who has since joined Sharon's Kadima party - said that the area would become “Fatah-land." The Shomron area that has now come under full PA control is some 700 square kilometers (270 square miles), approximately double that of the entire Gaza Strip.