The 100 missiles fired by the Palestinian Jihad Islami escalated Saturday and included Grad multiple rocket launchers mounted on vehicles and SA-7 anti-air rockets, the Russian version of the American Stinger, smuggled from Libya. Defense minister Ehud Barak warned there was more to come and the threat of a terrorist attack from Sinai was not over. A third Iron Dome anti-missile battery was posted in Ashdod. The police raised the terrorist alert nationwide to one below the highest level.

Palestinian terrorist organizations shot more than 80 Grad and Qassam missiles into a dozen southern Israeli towns and villages, sustaining a non-stop barrage Friday night and Saturday morning (March-9-10) in reprisal for the death of Zuheir al-Qaisi, head of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza. At least 8 Israeli civilians were injured by missiles and another 10 Palestinians killed in ongoing Israeli air strikes against missile teams and terrorist targets. Fifteen rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome batteries. Jihad Islami said "The truce is dead."

Monday night, Jan. 2, Al Qaeda claimed to have established its first Jerusalem operational cell calling it the "Sunni Youth Movement Cell in Greater Jerusalem." Bulletin No. 1 with details of the organization and its targets was promised in the next few days. debkafile's counter-terror sources report Israeli security services are taking the development very seriously. They tie it in with Palestinian plans for a West Bank uprising and the jihadist trend spreading through Palestinian centers in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Fifty Libyan Muslim Brotherhood mercenaries arrived in the Gaza Strip from Tripoli last month - in time to take part in the Jihad Islami's last missile offensive against Israel starting Oct. 29, debkafile's military sources report. They arrived at the wheels of minivans on which were mounted the new Grad multiple rocket-launchers which Palestinian terrorists fired for the first time last month. These mobile rocket-launchers were last seen on the Libyan battlefield in use against Muammar Qaddafi's army.

Libyan Islamists go to Gaza to fight with the Palestinian Jihad Islami, bringing with them advanced Grad multiple missile launchers supplied by Qatar and the UAE and sold to Palestinian extremists. A thriving new weapons market with a price list rises in the W. Libyan town of Zintan.

Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Sderot were again under missile fire from Gaza Monday night, Oct. 31 for the third day - although Israel's Home Front Minister Mattan Vilnai had stated the Jihad Islami offensive was over. Of the 7 missiles, one was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery in Beersheba.  Skeptical of the military assessment, several southern mayors kept schools closed. The continuing barrage and the army's decision to park an Iron Dome in Rehovot proved they were right.
 

Sunday morning, Oct. 30, Jihad Islami denied knowledge of a truce Egypt called for 0600 Sunday morning. By 0700 hours it had launched eleven Grad missiles and two mortar rounds from the Gaza Strip at Ashdod, Gan Yavne, Lahavim, Ashkelon and Shear Hanegev. This was the second day of its massive assault. Saturday, more than 35 missiles, most heavy Grads, battered eight towns, killed an Israel and injured seven. Schools there are closed Sunday amid a high security alert.

Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Ofakim, Gan Yavne and the Eshkol farm district were subjected to Jihad Islami volleys of more than 35 missiles Saturday, Oct. 29, in retaliation for the loss of a senior five-man missile team in an Israeli air force strike a few hours earlier. One Israeil was killed. The terrorists were shown firing 20 rounds in rapid succession from a Grad multiple rocket launcher mounted on a small truck which then drove off at speed – the same weapon used by Libyan rebels in Sirte.

 Tuesday night, Oct. 10, the Israeli cabinet approved the accord with Hamas for the release of Gilead Shalit  by a majority of 26. Three ministers opposed the deal – Avigdor Lieberman and Uzzi Landau of the Israel Beteinu party and Moshe Yaalon of Likud. To buy the Israeli soldier's freedom – probably next week – Israel will hand over 1,027 Palestinian terrorists so cutting short the multiple life sentences of 280 mass murderers responsible for hundreds of Israeli deaths. Hamas leaders pledge more kidnappings until all 8,000 jailed Palestinians are freed.

The Cairo media's highly colored accounts Monday, Aug. 30 of 1,500 Egyptian commandos and tanks supposedly raiding Jihad Islami and al Qaeda cells in Sinai are pure fiction, debkafile's military sources confirm. Israeli forces along the Gazan and Egyptian borders down to Eilat stand at the highest level of preparedness for a Jihad Islami group which left the Gaza Strip for Sinai on Aug. 24 to strike. The terrorists now hold the initiative thereby sapping the IDF's deterrent strength.

The policy of military restraint pursued by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was shown in the Tel Aviv attack by a Palestinian terrorist yelling Allah Akhbar Monday, Aug. 29, to have crossed a dangerous red line: Civilians are being left in harm's way to serve diplomatic interests such as not further straining relations with the new rulers in Cairo. An Israeli defense official has admitted that Iran fears American – not Israeli – military strength, thereby confessing to Israel's loss of deterrence. 

The Egyptian army is negotiating deals with 13 Bedouin tribal chiefs for setting up militias to secure their territories in Sinai and the Israeli border region against raiders, terrorists and smugglers. On offer are new weapons, training and monthly paychecks for undertaking this task. The Sawarka and Tiyaha tribal chiefs have accepted. Sinai's Bedouin population of approximately 100,000 might produce a fighting force of 8,000-10,000, debkafile's military sources estimate, but their loyalties tend to be changeable.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ruled Sunday, Aug. 21, that his first priority is to grant Egypt's military rulers the kudos for brokering a ceasefire in the Gaza missile war  – and deal later with the Palestinian Jihad Islami which fired most of the 100 missiles exploding in Israel from Gaza in the last four days. debkafile: He was wrong: Cairo will come back for more concessions under Muslim Brotherhood pressure; Jihad Islami and its masters, Tehran and Hizballah, remain free to restart missile fire any time.

The role of Iran and Hizballah in manipulating the ongoing Palestinian war on Israel from Gaza is now manifest, debkafile's military sources report. They planned, orchestrated and funded the coordinated attacks on the Eilat Highway Thursday, Aug. 18 and its sequel: volleys of 90 missiles launched day and night from Gaza against a million Israeli civilians. The Netanyahu government hesitates to send the IDF to stop the missiles flying from Gaza lest the same aggressors open another front leading to a regional war.

After the Israeli Air Force struck 12 Hamas and other terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday, Aug. 18, a hail of Palestinian missiles Friday hit the towns of  Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon and the smaller Sdot Negev, Shar Hanegev and Eshkol villages in a continuous blitz. Ten worshippers were injured - two seriously - when one of the six Grads aimed at Ashdod hit a synagogue. Police detonated a second in a controlled explosion.  Eight Israelis were killed, 33 injured in a Palestinian multiple terror attack near Eilat Thursday.

Thursday, August 18, Israel had its first taste of a sophisticated al Qaeda-style coordinated terrorist attack modeled on the atrocities common in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel's intelligence services, army (IDF) and police were taken by surprise by the scale and slick organization of the multiple assaults staged near Eilat on the highway running south parallel to the Egyptian border by gunmen of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees and Palestinian organizations linked to al Qaeda. Defense Minister Barak: "Gaza is the source of the terror."

Monday, Aug. 15, three Egyptian army brigades of 1,700 men backed by tanks, an equal number of special policemen and 3,400 security personnel drove into the northern Sinai towns of El Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah thereby launching a mission to retake Sinai from rampant Islamists, who were also responsible for sabotaging a gas pipeline. debkafile: In their first clash with Islamic Liberation Army gunmen, three Egyptian officers were kidnapped, one gunman was killed and 11 detained.

A team of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers has just finished setting up Hamas' first commando unit especially trained to combat any Israel military force entering the Gaza Strip, debkafile's military sources report. The new "Al Qods Brigades" unit of 400 men is to be the first of three. The urban guerrilla tactics imparted to Hamas drew heavily on the experience Al Qods is gaining in Syria, where its experts help President Bashar Assad crack down on protest.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan wants to visit Gaza next Sunday or Monday (24-25 July), debkafile reports. But both Turkish and Egyptian security services fear the visit would give the al Qaeda cells based in the Gaza Strip and Sinai a chance to assassinate him. Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas maintains it would amount to de facto Turkish and Egyptian recognition of the Hamas government. And in Jerusalem, Erdogan would appear to be deliberately hampering efforts to heal its rift with Ankara.

Hamas complains about the Israeli and Egyptian blockades. However, four days ago, the Gaza Strip's Palestinian rulers began building fortifications to block its western boundary with Egyptian Sinai, debkafile reports. They are concerned by the spillover of post-revolutionary chaos from Egypt and Sinai and the new influx of fighters and smugglers from Libya and al Qaeda-linked Sinai Bedouin, both of which have gone into the smuggling tunnel business on their own account and are causing mayhem.