-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/article/0,,178-293793,00.html
}}}>Begin
May 12, 2002
Suicide units await Israeli tanks
Hala Jaber, Gaza and Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
PALESTINIANS in Gaza prepared yesterday for a possible Israeli military assault by
sending patrols of suicide bombers in green vests rigged with explosives to intercept
the first tanks.
The determination of these suicide units shows why senior Israeli military officials
are
urging caution over any plan to invade Gaza, one of the most densely populated
areas in the world, with 1.2m people. It is a stronghold of the fundamentalist groups
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant breakaway
faction of the Fatah party of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader.
A typical Al-Aqsa patrol in the eastern Gaza Strip early yesterday began with a
journey by car, the headlights switched off, followed by a walk through narrow
alleyways to an orchard from which Israeli positions were visible three miles away.
All the men were heavily armed and dressed in military vests. Each was rigged with
33lb of high explosives, packed into hard rectangular compartments inside his vest.
Each was wired and ready to respond with the push of a button on plastic detonators
that sat cushioned in his pocket.
There was no panic at the observation that Israel had moved tanks and armoured
personnel carriers to the outskirts of Gaza. “Our morale is very high,” said the
commander of the unit. “We are all mobile belts of martyrs (suicide bombers); we are
moving vests of explosives.”
Each vest contained enough explosive to bring down three floors of a building or
disable a tank. “If they (the Israelis) do not come to us, we are going to them,” the
commander added.
The men also carried machineguns, hand grenades and knives, and he said some
patrols were equipped with rocket-propelled grenade launchers. “Fear is not an
option for us and we do not believe in it,” said another patrol member.
“We have such faith in God and our cause that we each pray to be granted
martyrdom. Perhaps the only thing we worry about is the fate of the wives and
children we will leave behind.”
A third man claimed the wives supported them: “Given the chance, they will join us
and become human bombs. But if you believe that we would not rather be home
leading normal lives and playing with our children, then you are hugely mistaken.
This is not our choice.”
Other fighters have booby-trapped the entrances to Gaza’s camps and the sand
dunes the Israelis would have to cross. The traps are said to be removed each
morning to ensure the safe passage of Palestinian civilians.
The fighters closely watched the Israeli operation in Jenin, where militants in a
refugee camp of 11,000 held out for 11 days against the Israeli army. The camps in
Gaza are six times bigger.
The showdown these Palestinians are expecting has been “frozen” by Ariel Sharon,
the Israeli prime minister. Last week, after a suicide bomber said to be from Hamas
killed 15 people at a snooker hall in Rishon Letsion, near Tel Aviv, it initially
appeared
the Israelis were poised to attack Gaza.
According to reports in Israel, Sharon wanted to exile Arafat but was dissuaded by
American pressure and by his security chiefs. Preparations nevertheless continued
for an assault on Gaza. Israeli undercover squads were ready to mark targets for
Cobra helicopters with lasers. The 55th Paratroop Brigade waited on the edge of the
Strip, while the elite Givati Brigade was ready under the command of Colonel Imad
Fares, an Arab Israeli.
Sharon may have held off pending the outcome of a different kind of battle today.
The conference of his right-wing Likud party is expected to feature a confrontation
between Sharon and the man who wants to replace him — Benjamin Netanyahu, the
former prime minister.
A recent poll showed that 50% of Likud members favour Netanyahu as leader
against 26% for Sharon. Netanyahu, unfettered by pressure from America or the
burdens of office, is campaigning under the slogan “Palestinian state — suicide”.
Israeli analysts expect an eventual military operation targeting the centres of Hamas
and Islamic Jihad operations in Gaza rather than a full invasion.
Yesterday Palestinian officials said a boy aged 14 had been killed and two others,
aged 11 and 14, had been wounded by Israeli troops.
Whatever this week holds, George Galloway, the Labour MP, will be there to see it.
This weekend he urged Palestinians in a speech in Gaza to hold out against
“barbarians at the gate”.
End<{{{
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