The Washington Post reports Egyptians Reseal Border, Cutting Access From Gaza
Egyptian construction workers in blue hard hats rolled barbed wire across the last breaches of the Gaza Strip’s border wall with Egypt on Sunday, reasserting Egyptian control of the frontier after Palestinian guerrillas used explosives and machinery to knock down the barrier.Egyptian and Palestinian forces had been signaling for days that the border would be sealed again, slowly choking off access for the hundreds of thousands of Gazans who had sought to leave the strip after the walls fell 11 days ago. This weekend, milling crowds of Gaza traders only watched, without throwing stones or shouting, as Egyptian construction workers and soldiers hoisted concrete blocks and rolled out barbed wire over the last gaps in the wall.
I guess we’ll see how long this closure will last. But it’s interesting how the crisis is described.
The border crisis began late last month when Israel sealed entry points from Israel into Gaza. Israeli officials said they were acting in response to guerrilla rocket attacks from Gaza toward southern Israel.
The crisis began with an Israeli action. The qassams? Well “Israeli officials said they were acting…” “Said they were acting?” Any idiot could see that 40 qassams a day was an intolerable situation and yet the reporter qualifies her report with “Israel officials say” as if that were a debatable point.
Of course the Post portrays the diplomatic aspects of the Gaza-Egypt border fence but ignores the terror enabling aspects of the breach, even in speculation.
But there’s no reason to speculate. The Jerusalem Post reports, Woman killed, one critically hurt in Dimona suicide attack:
One woman was killed and 38 people people were wounded, one critically, in a suicide attack in a Dimona commercial center Monday morning.Police said the attack was carried out by two attackers, but only one succeeded in detonating his explosives. The other terrorist was killed – seconds before he could detonate his explosives belt – by Kobi Mor, a police officer from an elite unit who happened to be on the scene.
More on the heroism that stopped the attack from being worse:
Shalom Bar Avi, a journalist speaking to Channel 10, said “I am here no longer as a journalist but as a simple citizen … I pray and hope my wife is okay.”Bar Avi praised the police’s quick response to the attack, and said Mor, the officer who identified the second attacker shot “four or five times … he took no chances.”
Later Mor’s heroism was revealed in detail: He shot the terrorist in the head, and when the latter in his last breath still tried to press the detonator button, shot him four more times and killed him. Mor managed to kill the terrorist before he could explode and without hitting his explosive belt, thus preventing a much more devastating attack.
Given the proximity of this attack to last week’s border breach, it’s safe to assume that this attack was enabled by the passage of munitions and terrorists across the Gaza-Egypt border. Just like terrorists fired a Grad missile at Ashkelon shortly after the Iran/Hamas group of pilgrims returned from their hajj. Hamas looks like it’s using these opportunities to widen their array of attacks against Israel. It’s a slow escalation, looking to see what it can get away with. Hamas’s patron Iran must be very pleased with the results of the latest escalation.
And of course the issue isn’t just the immediate terror attack, it’s the longer term that’s got to be a concern now. (h/t Backspin)
Considerable amounts of high quality weaponry were smuggled into Gaza through the breached border with Egypt along the Philadelphi rout, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin stated during a cabinet security briefing Sunday. Diskin further stated that “its is difficult to determine the precise amounts, but a great deal of high quality weaponry, including long range rockets, antitank missiles and anti-aircraft missiles, was smuggled into Gaza, and these are weapons that usually do not find their way into the Strip.â€More troubling, noted that Shin Bet chief, is the fact that the breach along the Philadelphi route allowed many militants trained in Egypt, Syria and Iran, to return to the Gaza Strip.
Predicting that the border with Egypt might likely remain breached for quite a while, Diskin warned that “all activities that previously took place underground can now take place far more easily above ground.â€
Meryl concludes
Israel cannot trust her security to anyone else. Time and again, the world has proved that it has no problem with dead Jews.
Somehow I don’t think this is the time to be strengthening the hand of Hamas.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has decided to relax the criteria regarding prisoners to be included in an exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit and push forward with a swap, despite vociferous objections by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), The Jerusalem Post has learned. Olmert met on the matter Sunday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, Internal Security Minister and former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter, Minister without Portfolio and former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon, Environment Minister and former deputy Shin Bet head Gideon Ezra, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann.
And that’s against the recommendations of one of his intelligence directors.
The withdrawal from Gaza followed by the withdrawal from the Philadelpi corridor has been a security disaster for Israel.
Liveblogging Israelly Cool! now has the death toll at 3. And of course the peace partners celebrate the terror. Harsh words from Bloodthirsty Liberal.
UPDATE: Seraphic Secret explains the heroics of Kobi Mor:
Head shots, even from just a few yards, are incredibly difficult. In the aftermath of a homicide bombing, as another terrorist is about to detonate, your every instinct is to flee. Kobi Mor is an exceptional man.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
