a Debkafile report

HOW ARAFAT PLANNED TERROR CAMPAIGN; LIST OF RECENT TERROR

Arafat Secretly Planned Terror Campaign in Ramallah

March 28: Information coming in from DEBKAfile’s intelligence and military sources in the last few hours puts the current wave of Palestinian terrorist outrages in true perspective. The first disclosure is that it was meticulously planned and timed by Yasser Arafat himself during the visits he paid to Ramallah this month, the first since the onset of the intifada last September. The men he placed in charge of the operation are Amin al-Hindi, Gaza-based chief of General Intelligence (an accomplice in the 1972 murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics), Tawfiq Tirawi, head of West Bank General Intelligence, and Arafat’s brother, Mussa, who heads Palestinian Military Intelligence. The second two have their command posts in Ramallah. The three men were ordered to organize a concerted campaign involving all the Palestinian militant groups, each playing its part. Therefore the Hamas military arm, Izz-e-Din El Qassam’s claim of responsibility for three suicide bombings – March 5: Netanya, in which 3 Israelis were killed and 80 injured; March 27: French Hill, Jerusalem, in which 31 Israelis were injured; and March 28: Kalkilya, in which two 15-year old Israeli schoolchildren, Eliran Rosenberg from Givat Shmuel and Naftali Landskorn from Petach Tikva, were killed and 4 injured – is only part of the full picture.

Hamas “martyrs” could not have operated without support from tens of operatives involved in logistics, planning and reconnaissance as well as receiving careful training. The three intelligence chiefs were told to make sure of compartmentalizing the data for coming strikes, so that no single bomber knew more than was necessary. Another of Arafat’s directives to the three commanders was to abandon the cell phone detonation method while the Arab summit was in progress and switch to suicides and car bombs for maximum effect and damage.

The last cell phone bomb was planted in a car in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim on March 22. It was spotted in time to prevent an explosion. In Hebron, one of Arafat’s Force 17 sharpshooters was assigned with targeting 10-month old Shalhevet Pass using a telescopic rifle.

In preparing this campaign, Arafat pulled the wool over the eyes of the Israeli Shin Beit, military intelligence and the CIA, when he claimed he stayed away from Ramallah for fear of his life. He therefore demanded the protection of hundreds of his presidential guard, Force 17, when he received US secretary of State Colin Powell in that town last month. Israeli authorities let those guardsmen pass through from Gaza.

It now transpires that the Force 17 contingent never returned to Gaza but was left behind in Ramallah by Arafat as the core of the operational force executing the current terrorist campaign.

Pattern of Terror Under Sharon:

• March 5: Suicide bombing in Netanya kills 3 and injures 80
• March 7: Security beefed up in Hadera and Haifa following terror alerts
• March 8 for app. 10 days: Strict blockade with trenches, ploughed up roads and armed check-posts cut down on terrorist movements enough to stem activity
• March 11: Three Tanzim-Kalandia bombers picked up before carrying out bombing in Jerusalem suburb of Neve Yaacov (after Shin Beit director talks to Ramallah-based Tanzim commander Marwan Bargouti)
• Closures gradually eased over following week before Sharon trip to Washington
• Direct counter-terrorist measures frozen until end of Arab summit in Amman
• March 22: Car bomb dismantled in Jerusalem’s religious quarter Mea Shearim after city inspector spotted cell phone on front seat.
  That was the last cell phone associated with a terrorist bombing
• March 24: Car bomb explodes outside Herzliya restaurant causing broad damage but no casualties
• March 27: Two bomb blasts in Jerusalem – a car bomb outside Talpiot mall injuring 5 and suicide bombing of bus at French Hill junction injuring 31. The bomber died.
• March 28: Suicide bomber kills 2 high school children and himself and injures 4 at gas station near Kalkilya check post.
• Two explosive charges dismantled in Netanya and Petach Tikva. Izz-e-Din Al-Kassam claims responsibility for first Netanya, French Hill and Kalkilya suicide bombings, says seven more suicide “martyrs” are ready to go.

This list only covers terrorist bombing attacks inside Israel. It does not include Palestinian shooting ambushes on roads and highways and attacks on Israeli settlements and army positions.