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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-
Palestinian Conflict
February 13 – 19, 2013

Palestinians riot in solidarity with terrorist operatives imprisoned in Israeli jails: students from Beir
Zeit University throw Molotov cocktails at the gate of the Israeli Ofer prison (Wafa News Agency,
February 12, 2013).

Overview
 The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip achieved at the end of Operation Pillar of Defense
three months ago continues. Demonstrations and rallies were held in Judea, Samaria
and the Gaza Strip in solidarity with the hunger-striking Palestinian terrorist operatives.
Some of the demonstrations in Judea and Samaria turned into riots when Palestinian
protesters confronted Israeli security forces.

 Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave another speech with a deterrent message
for Israel. He warned Israel that Hezbollah had the capability to attack Israel "from Kiryat
Shemonah to Eilat" and that its airports, ports and power plants were within range of
Hezbollah's missiles ("All that is necessary is a few missiles...to plunge Israel into
darkness").

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The Situation in the Gaza Strip
Rocket Fire

 Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip continue to implement
the understandings reached at the end of Operation Pillar of Defense. Since 2300
hours on November 21 no rockets or mortar shells hit Israeli territory.

Rocket Hits in Israeli Territory since the Beginning of 20111

1243 1400
1200
1000
800
600
179 122 400
174
10 28 19 22 0 200
11 3 11 0 0
0

Since the beginning of 2011,
Since the end of Operation Cast 2,197 rocket hits have been
Lead, 2,298 rocket hits have identified in Israeli territory;
been identified in Israeli 1,822 since the beginning of
territory. 2012.

1
As of February 19, 2013. The statistics do not include mortar shell fire.

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Annual Distribution of Rocket Fire2

1200

1159 1000
800
925
974 783 787 845 600
158 400
103
375 200
0
0

Demonstrations of Solidarity with Imprisoned Palestinian
Terrorists

Protests in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip
 This past week demonstrations and rallies were held throughout Judea, Samaria
and the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with Palestinian terrorist operatives imprisoned
in Israeli jails. The demonstrations were motivated by the hunger strikes of four
Palestinian prisoners, two of them previously released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner
exchange deal and re-imprisoned. Issa Qaraqa, minister of prisoners' affairs in the
Palestinian Authority (PA), said that if the hunger strike continued, the Palestinian
people would "march toward an intifada of freedom." He added that regional and
international pressure was being exerted on Israel and that Mahmoud Abbas was
personally monitoring the events (Ma'an News Agency, February 18, 2013).

 The protests came to a head on Friday, February 15, when Palestinians held a
number of demonstrations to show solidarity with the terrorist operatives imprisoned in
Israel. Some of the demonstrations in Judea and Samaria turned into riots when
Palestinians confronted the Israeli security forces. An IDF soldier was injured when
stones were thrown at him at a riot held near the Ofer prison (west of Ramallah).
Several Palestinian rioters were also injured (Ynet, February 15, 2013).

2
The statistics do not include mortar shell fire.

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 Solidarity demonstrations and rallies were also held in the Gaza Strip. Some of the
statements made attempted to link the issue of the prisoners to the continuation of the
lull in Palestinian violence, and warned that they would renounce the lull
agreement if anything happened to any one of the hunger strikers. Khaled
Mashaal, head of Hamas' political bureau, called the family of hunger striker Samer al-
Issawi and spoke to his parents and sister. He stressed that the entire Palestinian
people identified with him and the other hunger-striking prisoners. Mashaal said he was
in contact with the head of Egyptian general intelligence to have the Egyptians exert
pressure on Israel to release al-Issawi (Website of Hamas' information bureau,
February 14, 2013).

 On Monday, February 18, Palestinians in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip
held more demonstrations. The largest was in Hebron, where a mass march was
organized by the Palestinian prisoners' club. Marchers held pictures of prisoners and
waved signs praising their "firm stand" and condemning the silence of the international
community.

Left: Mass march in Hebron in solidarity with the hunger-striking prisoners. Right: Palestinian
youths confront the Israeli security forces at the Hawara roadblock near Nablus (Wafa News
Agency, February 18, 2013).

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Palestinians block the trans-Judea and Samaria road (Route 60) to the passage of Israeli vehicles.
It was one of the demonstrations of solidarity with the terrorist operative prisoners (Wafa News

Judea and Samaria

Other Events
 Other prominent events in Judea and Samaria were the following:
 On February 15, 2013, nine Palestinian youths were detained after they threw
stones at Israeli vehicles in the region of Karnei Shomron (central Samaria),
causing injuries (IDF spokesman, February 15, 2013).
 On February 14, 2013, a Palestinian broke through a roadblock near Karnei
Shomron and tried to run over a policeman. The policeman shot at the vehicle's
tires but the Palestinian kept driving toward him. The policeman then shot at the
vehicle itself, wounding the driver, who was taken to a hospital (Ynet, February
14, 2013). Note: The Karnei Shomron region has lately become a hotspot of
stone- and Molotov cocktail-throwers.

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Palestinian youths burn tires at the Jalame checkpoint (north of Jenin) (Wafa News Agency,
February 15, 2013).

Detention of Terrorist Operatives Who Attacked an IDF Soldier and
Stole His Weapon

[Bullet] The Israeli security forces exposed a five-man terrorist squad of Fatah Tanzim
operatives, residents of Qalandia and A-Ram, who infiltrated an IDF base in north
Jerusalem on December 21, 2012. Two of the terrorists, armed with a toy gun and fire
extinguishers, mounted the watchtower. One of them sprayed the face of the soldier on
guard and the other stole his M-16 assault rifle. The soldier was wounded during the
attack. According to the indictment, the members of the squad sold the rifle (IDF
spokesman, February 12, 2013).

Developments in the Gaza Strip

 Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the ministry of the interior of the de-facto Hamas
administration, reported that for the past ten days Egyptian security forces had been
closing tunnels along the Egyptian border at Rafah by flooding them with sewer
water. He said the Hamas administration had not been advised in advance. He also
said that the action endangered the Gaza Strip, whose economy rested on the tunnels,
and that the Hamas administration would take practical steps to respond to the step
taken by the Egyptians (Filastin al-Yawm, February 17, 2013).

 Egyptian sources reported that the Egyptian defense minister had ordered the
Rafah region be turned into a strategic military zone. To that end an Egyptian
engineering unit had dug several wells along the border to flood the tunnels (Al-Youm

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Al-Sabea, February 15, 2013). Sidqi Sobhi, chief of staff of the Egyptian army, said
that in addition to being a means of delivering basic goods they were also used to
smuggle weapons which threatened Egypt's security and therefore they were
being destroyed (Al-Arabiya TV, February 18, 2013).

 Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas' Executive Committee, criticized the Egyptian
action, saying that closing the tunnels while the so-called Israeli "blockade" of the Gaza
Strip was effectively an Arab decision in support of the oppression of the Palestinian
people (Palinfo website, February 16, 2013). A senior Egyptian security source
responded that Egypt was determined to take steps against the tunnels along the
Egypt-Rafah border and that they had become an economic tool serving a number
of merchants and had no connection with relieving the suffering of the Gazans.
The same source said there were an estimated 225 tunnels, each with a number of
openings, some of them located inside buildings, so that it was a question of about
550 tunnel openings (PalPress website, February 16, 2013).

Hamas Delegation Expelled from Bulgaria – A Political Blow
to Hamas

 A delegation of members of the Hamas faction of the Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC) exited the Gaza Strip for Bulgaria to participate in a political conference.
The delegation included Ismail al-Ashqar, deputy chairman of the Hamas faction in
the PLC, and Salah al-Bardawil and Musheir al-Masri, both PLC members (who also
have spokesman and information roles). Arriving in Bulgaria, the delegation was
received by Muhammad Abu Aassi, head of the Bulgarian Center for Middle East
Studies (Alresala.net website, February 14, 2013). On arrival, Salah al-Bardawil said
that the delegation would also meet with senior Bulgarian officials (Filastin Al-'An,
February 13, 2013).

 Despite the fact that Hamas wanted to make the visit appear as a formal state visit,
the Bulgaria foreign ministry made it clear that the Hamas delegation had been
invited to Bulgaria by an organization and not the government, and that it was
not an official visit. The delegation was requested to leave Bulgaria, and they were
expelled to Turkey. In response to the expulsion of the delegation, senior Hamas
figures said that diplomatic conventions had been violated and that Bulgaria had
surrendered to pressure from the "Zionist lobby" (Ma'an News Agency, February 15,
2013).

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Left: Members of the Hamas delegation in Bulgaria (left to right): Musheir al-Masri, Salah al-
Bardawil, Ismail al-Ashqar (Shihab website, February 13, 2013). Right: The delegation holds a press
conference at the Rafah terminal on their return to the Gaza Strip
(Hamas' Felesteen, February 17, 2013).

Reactions
 Salah al-Bardawil, Hamas spokesman and a member of the delegation, said that
the delegation's expulsion had been a political decision, the result of pressure from
Israel (Alresala.net website, February 15, 2013). At a press conference held at the
Rafah terminal when the delegation returned to the Gaza Strip, he called on Arab and
Palestinian groups to condemn the incident and to state a clear position against the
expulsion of the Hamas delegation. It was, he said, "in violation of every law and
diplomatic convention," because it was carried out against parliamentarians, who had
diplomatic immunity and who had entered Bulgaria on official visas (Ma'an News
Agency, February 16, 2013). Ahmed Bahar, deputy chairman of the PLC and member
of the Hamas faction, said that "the event grievously humiliated the Palestinian people
and was a despicable Bulgarian surrender to Zionist pressure" (Dunia Al-Watan, Al-
Fajar Al-Jadeed TV, February 16, 2013).

 Riyadh al-Maliki, PA foreign minister, said that the arrival of the Hamas delegation
in Bulgaria came as a surprise to the PA, and that their visit to Bulgaria had not been
coordinated with the Palestinian legation there or with official Palestinian
representatives (Voice of Palestine Radio, February 17, 2013).

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Conclusion

 For Hamas, a visit to Bulgaria, a member of the European Union, was supposed to
have been a precedent that would help it institute formal relations between Hamas and
the EU, even if Hamas refused to fulfill the Quartet's conditions. The visit was also
supposed to have been a diplomatic blow to the PA, which had no prior knowledge of it
(following a wave of visits of public figures to the Gaza Strip). Thus, the expulsion of
the delegation was, in our assessment, a political and public blow to Hamas'
efforts.

Turkey Builds a Hospital in the Gaza Strip
 On February 13, 2013, Jemal al-Khadiri, a Hamas member of the PLC who is also
chairman of the board of trustees of the Islamic University in Gaza City, toured the
building site of the Turkish-Palestine Friendship Hospital. The hospital is being built on
the ruins of the Israeli settlement Netzarim, and is funded by Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister. He will reportedly visit the Gaza Strip at the end of
the year to inaugurate the hospital. It will have 170 beds and employ both Palestinian
and Turkish doctors (Ma'an News Agency and Filastin Al-'An, February 16, 2013).

Left: An artist's rendering of the hospital. Right: The hospital in progress (Facebook page of the
Turkish-Palestine Friendship Hospital, February 17, 2013).

 Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas Executive Committee, said that on February 19
a delegation of senior Hamas figures headed by Khaled Mashaal, chairman of the
Hamas Executive Committee, had left the Gaza Strip for an official visit to Turkey,

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where they would meet with Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister (Shihab website and
Ma'an News Agency, February 19, 2013).
Report Says Gazan Salafist-Jihadists Are Fighting Alongside Rebels
in Syria

 According to Abu al-Inaa' al-Ansari, a leader of one of the Salafist-jihadi networks
operating in the Gaza Strip, between 20 and 30 young men, members in the Gazan,
had recently left for Syria. Their objective was to participate in the fighting
alongside global jihad networks which fight on the side of the rebels, such as
Jabhat al-Nusra. Palestinian sources reported that there had recently been an
increase in the number of young men who left the Gaza Strip and went to Syria. They
were mainly members of Salafist networks which had splintered off from the security
services of the de-facto Hamas administration. It was also reported that a number of
months ago two young Palestinians from the Gaza Strip had been killed in battle in
Syria and that several others had been wounded (Al-Quds, February 17, 2013).

Operation Pillar of Defense – Update 

Iranian Remark about Military Support for Hamas
 Ali Larijani, chairman of the Iranian parliament, admitted that Iran was equipping
the Palestinians with weapons and protecting Hamas and Hezbollah. He said that, as
opposed to others, Iran did not hide its support for the Palestinians (Sama News

Rebuilding the Gaza Strip
 Yasser Abd al-Rahman al-Shanti, deputy minister of housing and public works in
the de-facto Hamas administration, said that on February 21 the Gaza Wadi bridge,
which links the northern and southern Gaza Strip, would open to vehicles. The bridge
was being rebuilt after it had been damaged in November 2012 during Operation Pillar
of Defense. The construction, he said, was being financed by Human Appeal
International in the United Arab Emirates.3 He also thanked the HAI in the Emirates
(Paltoday website, February 17, 2013).

3
Human Appeal International is a charity established in 1984, headed by the ruler of Oman, Sheikh Hamid
bin Rashad al-Naimi. It has branches in many Arab countries and in India, as well as in Denmark, Australia
and Britain. It was outlawed in Israel at the time by the minister of defense.

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Left: The Gaza Wadi bridge, damaged during Operation Pillar of Defense (Hamas' Felesteen,
November 27, 2012). Right: The bridge under construction.

 On February 10, 2013, the main branch of the Islamic National Bank in the Rimal
section of Gaza City, which suffered severe damage in Operation Pillar of Defense,
reopened. The official reopening ceremony was attended by Ziyad al-Zaza, deputy
head of the de-facto Hamas administration (Hamas forum website, Filastin Al-'An,
website of the National Islamic Bank, February 10, 2013). The bank was established by
Hamas in March 2009, and has two branches in Gaza City and another in Khan Yunis.
Its director general is Hazem al-Masri and the chairman of the board of directors is
Ibrahim Jabber (Website of the Islamic National Bank in Gaza, February 10, 2013).

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The Islamic National Bank reopens (Filastin Al-'An, February 11, 2013).

The Palestinian Authority 

Preparations for President Obama's Visit to the PA
 In preparation for President Barack Obama's visit to the PA, an official PA
delegation went to Washington to update American officials on the Palestinian position
regarding negotiations with Israel. One member of the delegation was Saeb Erekat,
the chief Palestinian negotiator, and another was Muhammad Ashtiya member of
Fatah's Central Committee. The delegation will present the Palestinian positions
regarding an end to construction in the settlements, the release of the Palestinian
terrorist operatives in Israeli jails, and the source of authority for any future negotiations
(PalPress website, February 17, 2013).

Mahmoud Abbas Visits Pakistan
 This past week Mahmoud Abbas visited Pakistan. He met with the president and
other officials of the administration. He also participated in laying the cornerstone for
the Palestinian embassy in Pakistan. He told the president of Pakistan that he hoped to
receive him "in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state," and to pray with him in
Al-Aqsa mosque (Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, February 18, 2013).

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Mahmoud Abbas meets with the Pakistani president in Islamabad
(Wafa News Agency, February 17, 2013).

Lebanon 

Hassan Nasrallah's Speech
 Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave a speech on February 16 at a memorial
ceremony for three Hezbollah leaders (Abbas Musawi, Ragheb Kharb, Imad
Mughnieh). His speech was relayed on a giant screen. Nasrallah spoke about the
challenges facing Hezbollah in light of recent developments (Radio Al-Nur, February
16, 2013).
 The speech centered on sending a message of deterrence to Israel, another in
a series of such messages sent in previous speeches. Nasrallah emphasized that
Hezbollah could attack Israel "from Kiryat Shemonah to Eilat" and that its airports,
ports and power stations were within range of Hezbollah's missiles: All that is
necessary is a few missiles...to plunge Israel into darkness...Will Israel be able to stand
six months of darkness?...the economy of Israel and the people of Israel..."
 Other issues raised by the speech were the following:
 The attack in Bulgaria – Nasrallah said that there were those who were quick
to blame Hezbollah and to issue a verdict against it in the name of the European
Union. That might have been expected, because based on those accusations
Israel would start a war against Israel. However, past experience had shown that
if Israel wanted to start a war it did not need an excuse or to wait for the results of
an investigation, but it would go to war based on its own considerations.

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 Hezbollah's military capabilities – Hezbollah, said Nasrallah, was well
armed. Today it had all the weapons it needed for a possible war with Israel. It
did not need weapons from Syria or Iran.
 Hezbollah's support of the Palestinians – Hezbollah, he said, had given the
Palestinian intifada and the Palestinian [terrorist] organizations both material
and moral support, and was still supporting them. The Palestinians should
follow the example of the Lebanese "resistance" [i.e., Hezbollah] which in 2000
had succeeded in freeing itself [the year the IDF withdrew from the security zone
in south Lebanon], and the "resistance" which had succeeded in freeing the
Gaza Strip [the disengagement, 2005], and there was no reason it would not
continue to succeed.

Left: The memorial service for Hezbollah leaders (Al-Ahad, February 17, 2013). Right: Hassan
Nasrallah's broadcast speech (Maqawamah website, February 17, 2013).

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