by Aharon Lapidot, Shlomi Diaz, Dan Lavie, Shlomo Cesana, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
IDF officials: Hamas has shifted focus from smuggling in weapons through tunnels to producing weapons locally • IDF believes likelihood of a third intifada breaking out is low • Palestinian official says Kerry's framework proposal may be doomed to fail.
Gaza terrorists stand next
to an M-75 rocket, which has the ability to reach both Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem
|
Photo credit: AFP  |
The likelihood of a third intifada breaking
out is low, but Hamas has amassed hundreds of rockets that can hit
central Israel, according to Israeli Defense Forces officials.
IDF officials said there has been a "dramatic
change" in the balance of powers between Palestinian factions. The main
troublemaker in the Gaza Strip is the Islamic Jihad terror group, and
recent rocket fire from Gaza into Israel has shown that Hamas' ability
to control other groups in Gaza may have weakened to some extent.
"However, Hamas' ability to exercise authority
in Gaza is still high, its electoral potential has not been hurt in the
West Bank either," IDF officials said.
The IDF believes there is little motivation in
the West Bank for a third intifada. "People remember the sight of
Israeli tanks in city centers very well, and that is a serious deterrent
against a third intifada," a senior IDF officer said.
But Hamas has not been sitting idly by. The
IDF believes that terrorist group has made a shift from relying on
smuggling in weapons through tunnels toward a focus on locally produced
weaponry. Hamas, according to IDF assessments, and now has a stockpile
of hundreds of M-75 rockets that can hit central Israel. It is also
believed that this arsenal of long-range rockets will grow significantly
over the next year.
"An underground tunnel city is being built in
the Gaza Strip, and could be used to move forces around and protect
Hamas commanders in case of a future conflict with Israel," an IDF
official said.
Meanwhile, three Israeli government ministers
were expected to take part in a demonstration on Thursday to support
construction in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim. The
demonstration is an initiative of Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel.
Transportation and Road Safety Minister
Yisrael Katz (Likud), Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel
(Habayit Hayehudi), and Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Yair
Shamir (Yisrael Beytenu) planned to attend the demonstration.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael
Beytenu) referred to the current peace talks with the Palestinians on
Tuesday. "I don't know if we are close to reaching an agreement, but I
am renovating my housing in Nokdim [a community in Judea] and adding a
new room," he said.
A top Palestinian official said on Tuesday
that the framework Israeli-Palestinian agreement being crafted by U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry may be doomed to fail.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the deal due to be submitted to
the two sides in the coming weeks would be "useless" if it allowed them
to nominally accept its principles but to express reservations.
"Use of the word 'reservations' bogs down the
peace process and the use of this concept in the past has got the
process stuck," Abu Rudeineh told Reuters.
Abu Rudeineh cautioned against the Kerry document traversing any Palestinian "red lines."
Abu Rudeineh said the framework agreement must clearly
recognize the 1967 lines as the outline demarcating the two states,
designate east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and call Israel's
settlements "illegal."
Aharon Lapidot, Shlomi Diaz, Dan Lavie, Shlomo Cesana, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=15419
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
No comments:
Post a Comment