A major terrorist attack was foiled against the Karni terminal crossing from Gaza to Israel – amid US-EU pressure for Israel to yield on security safeguards at Palestinian border crossing to Egypt

Monday, Nov. 14, an IDF force intercepted a Palestinian band approaching the goods terminal for Palestinian exports armed with explosive devices and a recoilless grenade launcher. One terrorist was killed and two seriously injured in the exchange of fire. debkafile adds: This was the second Palestinian attempt in two days to blow up the Karni terminal with Israeli personnel. It occurred while US secretary Condoleezza Rice and EU external affairs executive Xavier Solana pushed hard for Israel to relent on its demand for security cameras to relay images of Rafah arrivals incoming from Sinai. They also demand that all the Gaza-Israel crossings remain open amid continuous Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israeli personnel.
debkafile: The impasse over the border crossings was complicated Monday by a fresh Palestinian demand. The PA now wants a presence on the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt which is wholly located in Israel territory. The Palestinians refuse to give ground on Israel’s demand for live television camera images on incoming traffic from Sinai through Rafah, offering only to route the transmissions through a third party.
The Palestinian demand for a security presence on Israeli soil is consistent with its longstanding territorial aspirations to fit the Gaza Strip into the defunct 1949 armistice lines rather than the borders they themselves endorsed in the 1994 Oslo interim peace accords. This would entail enlarging the Gaza Strip by adding slices of the Israel Negev.
Every single visit by a US secretary of state to the region on a peacemaking mission is accompanied by a bloody Palestinian terror attack in what has become a ritual.
En route from Saudi Arabia, Rice voiced the view that a Palestinian state would enhance Israel’s security. A Palestinian-Israeli peace, she said is a top US priority.