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Masked Palestinian members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist militia whose members are taking part in the offensive against Kfar Darom. (AP)
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| By israelinsider staff and partners May 20, 2005 |
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Palestinian terrorists continued their offensive against Jewish towns in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Hamas said it carried out the attacks in cooperation with the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group of armed factions.
One terrorist was killed, one injured, and one escaped, during an early morning attack on Kfar Darom. No civilian injuries were reported, but the several buildings were damaged.
The attack began at 3:00 a.m., when three Palestinians firing a mortar at Kfar Darom, followed by hand gun and rifle fire, and anti-tank missiles at IDF soldiers from a U.N. school near the Dir el-Balah neighborhood in Gaza.
According to Col. Moti Kadur, the terrorists could not have made it to the U.N. school without passing a Palestinian Police checkpoint, and said the incident points to active cooperation on the part of the Palestinian police.
Ashher Mivtzari, a spokesman for Kfar Darom, said the community received a warning in the middle of the night that terrorists would try to hit the community.
"They reached the school about 4:00 a.m., right next to an IDF base. The went up to the roof, and started firing right into the village," said Mivtzari.
Mivtzari said the army identified the source of fire straight away, but failed to gain approval to return fire from senior officers.
"It took an hour until the tanks received permission to fire back," he said. "It was enough time for 2 people to get away."
Mivtzari said it was a miracle no one was hurt in the attack, but that things could easily have ended differently.
Palestinians also fired at least 10 mortar shells at settlements and IDF posts overnight throughout the Strip, Israel Radio reported.
Col. Kadur denied Mivtzari's charge, and said soldiers fired back as soon as they identified the source of the attack.
"We have deployed in recent days in and around the town," he said. "True, we are not undertaking widespread operations at this time, but we are ready to thwart any attempt to harm soldiers or civilians."
Meanwhile, the IDF closed the Karni industrial zone on the Gaza-Israel border due to terror threats, and lifted a closure on the northern West Bank that had been in place for 10 days, since Memorial Day eve.
In the last two years, multiple Palestinian groups have coordinated several other multi-pronged attacks in Gaza, mainly at the Erez and Karni crossings.
Despite the continued barrage of mortar shells and rockets, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday approved a series of gestures to the Palestinians, over the objections of the Shin Bet security service.
Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin opposed the proposal to approve the gestures, on the grounds that there are too many warnings of terror attacks. But the IDF supported the decision. At a meeting with Mofaz on Thursday, senior officers warned that if Israel did not act to strengthen Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, "he'll fall, and then we'll have to give more abatements to Hamas, which will gain power in his stead."
The measures, which will be brought to the cabinet for approval after Sharon returns from the United States later this month, involve steps that Israel originally promised at February's Sharm el-Sheikh summit: freeing an additional 400 Palestinian prisoners, allowing the return of wanted Palestinians deported to Europe following the standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in 2002, and allowing the return of Palestinians deported from the West Bank to Gaza.
The U.S. security coordinator, General William Ward, had pressured Israel to take these steps in recent days. "You complain that the Palestinians are not fulfilling their commitments," he told his Israeli interlocutors. "But what about your commitments?"
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