A Digest of DEBKAfile Round-the-Clock Exclusives in Week Ending Oct. 15, 2015
Diary of Terror
Oct. 9:
- In Afula, a female terrorist, an Israeli Arab, pulled a knife on soldiers and police and was shot and badly injured.
- Firebombs and burning tires were thrown from the Israeli Arab towns of Wadi Iron and Taibe in central Israel at Highways 65 and 444.
- Seven Palestinians were killed, 60 injured in Gaza in a mob attempt to crash the Gaza-Israeli border fence.
- Two Israelis injured in stabbing attacks. In Kiryat Arba, Hebron, a Palestinian was shot dead trying to grab a police sidearm. In Jerusalem, a yeshiva student was attacked near the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Hatzadik
- Three Jewish revenge attacks on Arabs in Dimona, Netanya and Nablus, followed by arrests.
Oct. 10:
- Police call up 13 Border Guards platoons to beef up counter-terror security.
- Iron Dome batteries posted in S. Israel. Two rockets were fired after a Palestinian rioter was killed near Khan Younis Saturday amid continuing cross-border Palestinian clashes with Israeli troops who stopped them pouring across into Israel.
- Three policemen and an elderly Jew in a talith were injured in Palestinian stabbing attacks in Jerusalem.
Curfews and Internet restrictions can’t be avoided for reining in Palestinian street terror
After nearly a month of rampant Palestinian violence and murder, Israel’s leaders and its forces of law and order were Saturday, Oct. 10, fast approaching an unavoidable decision to impose a curfew on the Old City of Jerusalem – both to bring the stabbing attacks at every corner under control, and to isolate this source of contagion from the disorders spreading to the West Bank and Israeli Arab locations. To disrupt their orchestration, it is necessary to block Palestinian cell phone networks and inciters’ Internet IPs.
Oct. 11:
- An Israeli Arab from Umm al-Fahm smashed his car into group on Rte 65 near Gan Shmuel, jumped out and knifed four Israelis, including a 19-year old girl who was critically hurt.
- A female terrorist stopped in bomb car heading for a major attack in Jerusalem. She blew herself up on the Maale Adummim highway and was seriously injured.
- Israeli Arab leaders and MKs call a general strike for next Tuesday.
Oct. 12:
- Four terror attacks in Jerusalem. A Palestinian on a bus tried to strangle a soldier and snatch a policeman’s gun. He was killed in crossfire.
- A Palestinian boy of 13 knocked an Israeli boy of the same age off his bike in Pisgat Zeev and left him with critical stab wounds. A second terrorist left an Israeli man seriously hurt on the same street. He was shot dead; the boy was hospitalized with serious injuries. The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas claimed Israel had “executed” the boy before he was found to be alive.
- A border policeman’s body armor saved him from serious injury by a knife-wielding female terrorist at Lions Gate, Jerusalem.
Palestinian knives out in Jerusalem ahead of Israeli Arab general strike
The Palestinian knifing spree in Jerusalem Monday, Oct. 12, the day after an Israeli Arab from Umm al-Fham mowed down, then stabbed, four Israelis in central Israel, put the Palestinians on the same bloody course as Israeli Arabs. For Wednesday, Israeli Arab MKs scheduled a grandstand performance at Al Aqsa Mosque, which has served the Palestinians as their most evocative and unifying emblem for most of the past century.
Oct. 13:
- First shooting attack on a Jerusalem bus, combined with a knifing, killed two elderly Israeli passengers, injured 21, in the southern suburb of Armon Hanatziv.
- In downtown Jerusalem a 60-year old rabbi was killed by a Palestinian, who slammed his car into a group at a bus stop, then used a butcher’s cleaver to injure three more victims, before he was shot dead.
The terrorists in both attacks came from the Jerusalem suburb of Jebel Mukaber. - Another terrorist carried out two stabbing attacks in central Raanana north of Tel Aviv, injuring five people.
- Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog said the government must stop stammering and take immediate and strong action to restore security.
- First anti-terror measures and penalties approved by the security cabinet. First demolitions of the homes of five killer-terrorists announced, together with partial closures of Palestinian districts of Jerusalem. Hundreds of IDF soldiers will reinforce the police.
- Two soldiers on every Jerusalem bus.
- Hospitals on emergency footing for long term.
- Citizenship and residency permits revoked for killer terrorists and their families.
- Jerusalem’s two highway links were briefly shut for a sweep for terrorists mingling with intercity traffic.
- Police admitted that the current terror wave is orchestrated and organized – not just a “lone wolf” campaign as hitherto claimed.
Oct. 14:
- Two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem, two terrorists shot dead. An elderly woman seriously hurt.
- Kerry blamed the “massive increase in settlement-building” for the violence.
- Immediate family members of Israeli Arabs who commit terrorist attacks against Jews would be stripped of their residency as well as government benefits.
- Partial closures of Jerusalem Arab districts are among anti-terror security measures and penalties for terrorists approved by the Israeli security cabinet.
Oct. 15:
- The West Bank homes of 7 terrorists guilty of murdering Israelis are to be demolished in 48 hours.
- Israel demands retractions from President Obama and Secretary Kerry for affixing blame for Palestinian violence on “massive settlement construction, and for the State Department’s reference to “excessive [Israeli] force.”
- debkafile has stopped identifying terrorists by name or running their images.Palestinian propaganda hails them as heroes and role models thereby further fueling the violence.
Other News of the Week
October 9, 2015 Briefs
- The Pentagon ends $500m training program for Syrian rebels
In its announcement Friday, the Pentagon said that its “train and equip” program for Syrian rebels, which produced only four or five combatants, would be replaced with a far less ambitious plan. - Last US carrier pulled from Gulf as Russia escalates ME action
US military officials report that the USS Theodore Roosevelt was pulled Thursday out of the Gulf, leaving the US Navy for the first time since 2007 with no aircraft carrier in the Middle East. This week, Russian warships twice fired cruise missiles into Syria from the Caspian Sea. debkafile: The Roosevelt carries some 5,000 troops and 65 combat planes. Most of the US air strikes conducted in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan – usually against ISIS – were mounted from its decks. - Top Iranian general killed near Aleppo Syria
debkafile: Iranian Gen. Hossein Hamedani, second in command of the Al Qods Brigades under Qassem Soleimani, was killed in the fighting outside Aleppo in northern Syria Wednesday. Hamedani is the highest ranking officer Iran has lost so far in the Syrian war.
Israel is braced for Russian aerial intrusions over its Golan border
Uncertainty hangs over Moscow’s intentions regarding its air force flights near the Israel’s Golan border – even after two days of discussions ended in Tel Aviv Thursday, Oct. 8 between the Russian Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolay Bogdanovsky and his Israeli counterpart Maj. Gen. Yair Golan. A coordination mechanism between the two air forces was left as unfinished business for further discussion, debkafile reports. So it is still not clear to Israel what happens if Russian warplanes, while covering a Syrian-Hizballah operation in Quneitra, slip over into Israeli air space.
October 10, 2015 Briefs
- Death toll from twin blasts in Ankara rises to 86, 126 injured
The two explosions took place Saturday morning near the central train station of Ankara, killing at least 20 people according to first reports. The target appears to have been am opposition peace march calling for an end to the violence with the Kurdish separatists group, the PKK.
October 11, 2015 Briefs
- Iran tests new ‘Emad’ ballistic missile, report says
Iran’s Defense Minister, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan, said his country’s military recently carried out the first test of its new "Emad" ground-to-ground missile, the Iranian state-run news agency said Thursday. - Saudi king Salman hospitalized. Palace coup suspected
King Salman Bin Abdalaziz, 79, was confined to the hospital in Riyadh in intensive care and restrained under heavy sedation. Court sources say he was removed after “going crazy” and attempting to injure himself. This is not confirmed.
October 12, 2015 Briefs
- Russia ramps up air strikes in Syria to 60
Russian air strikes are now running at 60 per day in an effort to retilt the battle for Hama in favor of Syrian government and Hizballah forces against Syrian rebels. debkafile: The battle raging since the middle of last week will decide who controls the strategic Rte 5 which links Aleppo to Damascus via Homs and Hama. - Indian President arrives in Israel after Jordan and Ramallah
President Pranab Muherjee pays a state visit to Israel Tuesday after trips to Amman and Ramallah. He will be welcomed by President Reuven Rivlin in a state ceremony, hold talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and deliver a speech to the Knesset. In comments he gave in Jordan, the Indian president stressed that the deepening ties between his country and Israel do not mean that his government has abandoned the Palestinian issue and its focal aim of an independent Palestinian state. - Eight senior ISIS figures killed in Iraqi air strike – not Baghdadi
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi does not appear to have been among the eight senior figures killed in Iraqi air strikes on their meeting at Karbala in western Iraq Sunday or the convoy heading there with Baghdadi. Iraqi officials said Baghdadi had been driven away from the convoy in an unknown condition. A US military official in Baghdad said there were no indications Baghdadi was killed or injured during the operation.
October 13, 2015 Briefs
- First report: Israel hits back at Syrian mortar fire on Golan
The IDF fire missiles at two Syrian army targets across the border after a Syrian mortar shell landed and exploded on the Golan. No Israeli casualties reported. - Iran boosts ground forces in Syria
Monday night, Iran began pouring more ground troops into Syria, HIzballah and Iranian sources report, as part of its share in the military alliance with Syria and Russia. - Lebanese army goes on alert amid growing jihadist threat
The alert comes after the intensification of Russia’s airstrikes in central Syria and Hizballah’s tightening of security within its strongholds in Lebanon. Concerns over jihadist attacks have also grown in the aftermath of Saturday’s suicide bombing in Ankara in which nearly 100 people were killed. ISIS is the prime suspect.
October 14, 2015 Briefs
- Russian missiles fired at Syria pose hazard to commercial flights
In an unusual warning, the EU’s flight safety regulator has said commercial flights between Europe and Asia face a serious threat from cruise missiles fired at Syria by Russian warships in the Caspian Sea. - Russia says US rejects talks on tightening Syria cooperation
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Washington has turned down an invitation by Moscow to send a high-ranking defense delegation for talks on coordination of military operations in Syria. - Two explosions injure four in Alexandria, Egypt
Egyptian media did not name the hand that caused two large explosions that rocked Alexandria early Wednesday injuring at least four people.
October 15, 2015 Briefs
- Moscow reports new hot line with Israel’s military
Russia's defense ministry said Thursday that its forces in Syria had set up a "hotline" with Israel's military to avoid clashes in the sky over the war-torn country. "Mutual information-sharing on the actions of aircraft has been established through a hotline between the Russian aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of the Israeli air force.”
Israeli perturbed by the arrival of 3,000 Iranian troops in Syria with 2,000 Cubans
Israel was uncharacteristically forthcoming by revealing Thursday, Oct. 15, that 3,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards troops had secretly landed in Syria – the largest Iranian ground force ever to set foot there. This disclosure attests to Israel’s grave concern that Iran may take advantage of the IDF’s transfer of forces from its northern borders to the domestic fronts for quelling the current outbreak of Palestinian terrorist violence, to go for territorial gains on the Golan and the Israel-Lebanon border.