A Digest of DEBKAfile Round-the-Clock Exclusives in Week Ending Oct. 22, 2015

Diary of Terror

Oct. 15

• 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.”
• Netanyahu offers to meet Abu Mazen while calling him a liar and inciter to violence.
• debkafile has stopped publishing names and images of terrorists since they are hailed by Palestinian propaganda as heroes and role models.
• The radical leader of the Northern Branch of the Israeli Islamic Movement Ra’ad Saleh is barred from leaving the country.

Oct. 16

• Palestinian mob torches Joseph’s Tomb near Nablus at outset of Day of Rage declared by all Palestinian organizations Friday.
• In Jerusalem, 6,000 police and soldiers are on guard for fresh Palestinian outbreaks.
• Terrorist posing as press photographer stabbed, seriously injured Israeli soldier in Kiryat Arba before he was shot dead.
• Woman of 72 stabbed while boarding a bus in Jerusalem. The driver stopped the terrorist from entering the bus. Police shot him dead.
• Palestinian fired guns at IDF post outside Ofra, amid disturbances and rock and firebomb attacks across the West Bank.
• Demolition orders issued for West Bank homes of seven Palestinian terrorists guilty of murdering Israelis.

Oct. 17

• Five attacks in one day. Two soldiers stabbed and injured at Kalandia checkpoint and Jewish suburb of Hebron, Kiryat Arba. Both terrorists shot dead. Seriously wounded Border Guards girl shoots Palestinian assailant at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem thwarted by armed victims.

Saudis and Iran vie in cash tug-‘o-war behind Palestinian terror. US sidelined

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are funneling millions of dollars to Palestinian groups to buy their abstention from the current wave of terror against Israel, while Iran and Hizballah and spending cash to convince Palestinian extremists keep the flames of terror high. The Saudi-Iranian contest poses a major threat to the security and stability of Israel and Jordan. The Obama administration has been left out of the contest after denigrating Israel’s counter-terror measures. Mahmoud Abbas bereft of influence is left out in the cold as the Saudis and UAE directly engage Israel and Jordan.

Oct. 18

• IDF assigns 300 troops to secure Jerusalem’s public buses, light railway and central bus station.ransport

Sgt Omri Levy, 19, was murdered in Beersheba terrorist attack

A terrorist armed with a gun and a knife walked into the Beersheba central bus station Sunday night, Oct. 18, shot dead an Israeli soldier, 19-year old IDF Sgt. Omri Levy, from Sdeh Hamad, snatched his weapon, opened fire and injured 10 people, including four soldiers. Police killed him in a struggle and shot a second suspect, who was beaten up by angry bystanders at the scene and died in hospital. He was an Eritrean migrant worker who was mistaken for a second terrorist. debkafile: This was not the first terrorist shooting. Just last week, a two Israelis were murdered in a shooting-cum-knifing attack on a Jerusalem bus in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.

Oct. 19

• Abbas’ crony Jibril Rajoub extols Palestinian terror, urges inclusion of “feats of heroism” should be taught in Palestinian schools.

New Iranian terror group activated Beersheba shooter

The gunman, who murdered Sgt. Omri Levy, 19, and injured 10 victims at the Beersheba bus station Sunday night, Oct. 18 was an Israeli Bedouin, Muhand Al- Uqabi, 21, who was born in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza to an Bedouin woman who was repatriated in Israel. debkafile: The first Negev Bedouin to engage in the current wave of Palestinian terror he is believed to have been activated by a new terror movement called Al-Sabirin, established by Iran’s Qassem Soleimani and Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah when they deemed Hamas and Jihad Islam too conformist and tame. Its leader is Hisham Salem from Beit Lahiya who has wide West Bank family ties.

Oct. 20

• Five Palestinians terrorists are shot dead in the course of attacks – mostly in the Hebron area and mostly stabbing attacks on Israeli soldiers.
• Avraham Hassano, 54, from Kiryat Araba, Hebron, was run over and killed by a Palestinian hit-and-run truck after he got out of his car to inspect damage caused by rocks from the Palestinian village of Al Fawar.
• Two Israelis were injured when a Palestinian car ran them over at the Gush Etzion junction.
• Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a visit to the Gaza front Tuesday said that although we are in a battle for Israeli security on several fronts, “I am under the impression that the situation is under control.”
  As he spoke, Palestinians began pelting the IDF position at the Erez crossing with rocks and firebombs. The soldiers fired back.
• Israeli forces detained Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousuf at his home in Betunya, near Ramallah, after Hamas exhorted its members to revert to suicide attacks against Israeli targets in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Oct. 21

• A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a female IDF soldier at Adam Square on Route 60 north of Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon. She was in critical condition. Before he could knife her partner, she shot him dead.
• Palestinian ran down and injured an Israeli at the “British Police” junction near Ofra Wednesday and drove off.
• Early Wednesday, security guards at Yitzhar, Samaria (M. West Bank), alerted an IDF unit to a Palestinian female armed with a knife at the gate. She was disabled and arrested.

Israel’s “Knock on the Keyboard” campaign spies on and subverts terrorist social networks

The IDF’s intelligence officers of today operate on a novel battlefield, armed with a keyboard, screen, internet link and idiomatic command of the Arabic vernacular. This cyber warrior fights under a fictional or borrowed virtual identity to invade terrorist networks and plant false directives to deflect a Palestinian from setting out to sow terror with a knife, gun or car. He uses the same digital space as the back-alley Palestinian gangs to sow panic and confusion in terrorist ranks and chase down the chains of command behind the acts of terror.

Oct. 22

• Hamas leaders in the Gaza strip called on all Palestinians on the West Bank and Jerusalem to observe a “Day of Rage” Friday. The IDF and Israel’s security service are braced for fresh terror strikes.
• Two Palestinians stabbed an Israeli outside a synagogue in the town of Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem Thursday morning. They were shot dead before they could carry out a multi-casualty attack on the synagogue.

Other News of the Week

October 17, 2015 Briefs

• New York Mayor pays solidarity trip to Israel
  New York City's mayor Bill De Blasio began his visit to Israel saying “It is very important to stand in solidarity with Israel" at this time of crisis. He met Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, has scheduled a meeting with Jerusalem Mayor, Nir Barkat, and will also to visit Israeli stabbing victims in hospital.

October 18, 2015 Briefs

• Al-Qaeda kingpin in Syria killed by airstrike, US says
  The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that a leader of Al-Qaeda’s operations in Syria was killed in an airstrike by the US-led coalition four days ago. It said Saudi citizen Sanafi al-Nasr, who specialized in recruitment and fundraising, had been sent from Pakistan to Syria to plan terrorist attacks against Western countries. He was one of six men that the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on in 2014.
• Sudanese battalion arrives in Yemen to support regime
  A battalion of 300 Sudanese troops has arrived in the Yemeni port city of Aden to support the country’s government amid the ongoing war against Houthi rebels, reports said Sunday.
• Families of Lebanese Hizballah fighters oppose Syria deployment
  The families of Lebanese Hizballah fighters are increasingly opposing the deployment of their family members to the Syria war, reports said Sunday. Cash payments have been increased.
• Egypt holds first parliamentary elections in three years
  Out of the 596 seats up for grabs in Egypt’s lower house, 448 will be decided through direct voting, 120 will be chosen by the different parties and 28 are to be determined by the president.
• US, Israeli chiefs of staff meet in Tel Aviv
  US Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets Sunday with his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot, at IDF headquarters to discuss the tightening of cooperation between the two militaries.
  Turkey arrests 50 foreigners planning to join ISIS: reports
  Turkish security forces arrested 50 foreign citizens in Istanbul on their way to travel to Syria and Iraq in order to join ISIS.
• Cuba denies sending military forces to Syria
  Havana Sunday denied sending military forces to fight in Syria. These reports were termed “irresponsible,” by official spokesmen. US media are still reporting nonetheless that the Cuban army chief Gen. Leopoldo Cintra Friaso was in Damascus to coordinate the integration of Cuban units after a trip to Tehran.

Twelve air forces crowd Syrian skies. Israel-Russian hot line may channel coordination

On Sunday, Oct. 18, Russian and Israeli air force headquarters near Latakia n Syria and Tel Aviv began practicing procedures for using the hot line they established last week to coordinate their operations in Syrian skies. This was the first bilateral coordinating mechanism established since the Russians stepped up their air operations over Syria, although 12 air forces frequent Syrian air space in the absence of functioning sovereign government control. debkafile: Arab-speaking flight controllers will no doubt man the Russian end of the hot line at Al-Hmeineem, while US and other Western air controllers will join Israeli officers at the Tel Aviv end to coordinate their own flights over Syria with the Russian command. An excellent opportunity is provided for this informal procedure to go into effect by the joint US-Israeli bi-annual Blue Flag air exercise that began Sunday at Israel’s southern air base at Ovda.

October 19, 2015 Briefs

• The IDF starts training drill on Golan Monday night
  The drill is part of an annual IDF training exercise on the Golan to test the security forces’ preparedness. From Monday night to Thursday, the practice will entail heavy traffic in northern Israel and explosions.
• New head for Israel’s prison service
  Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has nominated a female officer to be the Chief Commissioner of the Israel Prison Service. Klinger, aged 53, has law and political science degrees, is a married mother of three from Yehud who has held several command positions in her 26 years in the organization.

October 20, 2015 Briefs

• Top US soldier on first trip to Iraq
  Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on his first visit to Iraq since his appointment, said he sees no prospect right now for Russia to expand its air strike campaign into this country. He flew in to Irbil from his first Middle East stop in Israel.

October 21, 2015 Briefs

• ISIS seeking alliance with Al-Nusra Front
  Russian intelligence learns that ISIS is courting the Nusra Front for an alliance against the Russian army.
• US, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia discuss Syria
  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will hold a joint meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Vienna on Friday to discuss a political solution for Syria.
• Khamenei endorses nuclear deal, with major stipulation
  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved his country’s nuclear agreement with Western powers on the condition that the US and the other countries immediately lift sanctions against Iran. He said the deal was still open for renegotiation.
• Netanyahu meets Kerry Thursday after talks with Merkel
  German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized settlement building as “counterproductive to a two-state solution,” when she welcomed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on a working visit to Berlin Wednesday. “We will continue to protect Israel,” she said, and went on to say: “We expect him [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to condemn everything that constitutes an act of terrorism. One can’t have open talks with Israel if this does not happen.”
• Canada ends bombardment of ISIS in Syria and Iraq
  Canada’s new prime minister Justin Trudeau has ended his country’s bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
• Assad leaves Syria for first time in civil war to meet Putin
  Syrian president Bashar Assad flew to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin.
• Arabs forced to drop Palestinian Western Wall grab
  A majority of delegations at UNESCO, forced the Arab bloc of states early Wednesday to withdraw the Palestinian draft resolution declaring the Western Wall an “integral part” of Al Aqsa mosque compound.

October 22, 2015 Briefs

• Russia using explosive drones against Syrian rebels
  Russian military forces in Syria have started using explosive drones with ranges of over 100 kilometers against rebel groups, reports said.
• Iran says it won't support Assad indefinitely
  Tehran will not back the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad forever but believes that Assad must play a role in the formation of a future government, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday.