Replies

Debka reports:

http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=542

Kissufim roadblock entry to Gaza’s Gush Katif slams shut for the last time Sunday night, opening only for exits. Only 33% of families have left.

August 14, 2005, 7:54 PM (GMT+02:00)

A rise in the Palestinian terror level could slow down evacuations, said Israeli chief of staff Dan Halutz in his final Sunday briefing to chiefs of the evacuation units hours before delivery of the individual eviction orders began midnight. The deployment has begun of the four-brigade IDF ring shielding the evacuation zones. A Palestinian force is due to take up position 200-300 yards away by Wednesday.

The 48-hour eviction orders are intended to speed up voluntary departures. By Sunday, no more than one-third of Gaza Strip families was estimated to have left or applied for state assistance. The communities making a stand against evacuations are Kfar Darom, Shirat Hayam, Netzarim, Katif and part of Neve Dekalim.

Monday and Tuesday, the troops will give holdouts brotherly advice to leave their homes voluntarily although reasonable requests will be heeded. But Wednesday, Aug. 17, the general insisted “sensitivity will make way for determination.” The mission will be accomplished on time.

Halutz estimated that some 5000 non-residents managed to slip into Gush Katif to help resist the pull-out. Thousands of troops and police are manning roadblocks on southern Israeli roads leading to Gaza to hold back supporters from reaching Gush Katif.

The Israeli government is due Monday, Aug 15, to approve the second batch of locations for removal, including the four in the northern West Bank. There, some 65% of the families marked for evacuation have left, leaving hold-outs in Sanur and Homesh.

----
http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=535

Israeli officer, 4 soldiers, hurt in friendly fire following first pullout incident

August 14, 2005, 12:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

Regardless of the Palestinian pledge to hold their fire during the pullout, a sniper began shooting at Kfar Darom before dawn Sunday, Aug 14 from a nearby rooftop used regularly as a Palestinian terrorist lookout and firing position. An IDF tank and armored carrier were sent to silence the shooting. The tank fired two shells at the house, one of which exploded near the armored carrier, injuring an officer and 4 soldiers.

DEBKAfile reports: The Israeli high command took the Palestinian pledge seriously, setting up joint operations rooms, trading documents and maps and allowing armed Palestinian strength to deploy around the fences of the locations due for evacuation. Israeli commanders were briefed to expect a Palestinian attack only after the removal of civilians. That pledge was violated by one sniper early Sunday and, although the powers-that-be will try hard to treat this as an isolated incident, he is unlikely to be the last one.

Israeli security forces are therefore confronted this week with two almost insuperable tasks:

1. To protect some 30,000 troops police and evacuees packed tightly within the narrow limits of Gush Katif and the Kissufim road against Palestinian attack. A single mortar shell would inflict a massacre.

In the third week of July, IDF commanders pressed for a temporary takeover of Palestinian vantage points overlooking the evacuation sectors as a protective measure. Defense minister Shaul Mofaz refused.

2. To keep the line of 7,500 Palestinian security officers from too closely encircling the evacuations. This line is too flimsy and untrustworthy to hold off a determined rush by armed Palestinian terrorists; some of the officers may slip them Israel’s plans of operation or even point out the best firing positions for attack. All the same, the IDF command has little hope of gaining Israeli government permission for this task - even if the coordination accords signed with the Palestinian Authority and endorsed by international coordinators fail to hold water.

---

http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=534

Abu Mazen’s emissary: Palestinians “right of return” from Lebanon starts in Gaza

August 13, 2005, 11:12 PM (GMT+02:00)

Senior member of the Fatah central committee, Abu Zaki, told a news conference in Beirut Saturday, August 13: Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon have priority over other Palestinians to return to Gaza after Israel’s pullout.

On a mission to Lebanon on behalf of the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Zaki made three more points:

1. Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza without stipulating the right to oversee incoming and exiting traffic opens the way for Palestinians to realize their “right of return.”

2. It is out of the question for the Palestinians of the Ein Hilwa and Mia Mia camps near Sidon and Rashidiya near Tyre to give up their arms in keeping with demands from the Bush administration.

3. The Palestinian militias in Lebanon will be shipped by sea to the Gaza Strip. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Zaki was referring to a 3,000-strong Palestinian militia among which Hizballah and al Qaeda elements are embedded with their commander, Col. Mounir Maqdah.

In the name of Abu Mazen, Zaki promoted Brig. Sultan Abu al-Aynayan, from head of Palestinian forces in Ein Hilwa to supreme Palestinian commander in Lebanon.

Zaki is in Lebanon to execute the understandings Abu Mazen reached with Lebanese prime minister Dr. Fouad Siniora in Beirut on July 27.