[Jerusalem] — On the 18th of September, a suicide bomber detonated his load at a bus stop outside the Arab-populated city of Umm al Fahm in the north of Israel. The blast not only killed Moshe Hezkiyah, a 21-year old Police Sergeant, and wounded three others, but triggered a wave-effect of international media dispatches heralding an end to what was uniformly termed a “six-week lull in suicide bombings”.
The contention was – and is – that between the suicide bomb that killed nine and injured 50 at the Meron Junction on August 4th, and the back-to-back explosions on September 18 and 19, a suspension of the horrific terror tactic was in place as the result of some strategic decision by those in charge of dispatching would-be martyrs to their deaths. Yet, a cursory glance at the statistics compiled by Israel Police and army during the same period tells a very different story.
Supporting the Israeli contention that any perceived “lull” was the result of the vigilance of Israeli security forces plus a strong dose of luck, is an intelligence source detailing of fifty-one cases in which they foiled potential suicide attacks: thirty-eight of which involved the interdiction of bombers on their way to carrying out the act.
Police Superintendent Gil Kleiman told The Media Line that in addition to the apprehension of terrorists caught “in the act,” scores of attacks by means other than suicide bombs, shootings, grenade and mortar attacks were carried out. A total of 144 actual incidents of terror were counted, with the majority of that list consisting of the following:
· 76 bombings
· 28 shooting incidents with at least one injury
· 3 incendiary devices
· 1 knife attack
· 10 grenades thrown
· 5 mortar shells resulting in injuries
· 9 rocket launchers discovered
The above list resulted in seven deaths and injuries to sixty-five people. The police and army utilize different criteria for categorizing such attacks, resulting in slightly different numbers but indisputably similar results. Captain Jacob Dallal of the IDF Operations branch reported that in September alone, eight Qassem workshops were found in Gaza and more than seventy in the West Bank. Qassem rockets and launcher were discovered in a village west of Nablus, ready for activation. This marked the first time that a missile in the West Bank was aimed and ready for launching. The capability exists for it to reach the Sharon (highly-populated coastal area north of Tel Aviv) from Qalqilya.
Regardless of how the numbers are expressed, any calculation confirms the obvious: that the level of hostilities between August 5 and September 18 belies any suggestion of a “lull” in either suicide bombings or terror attacks.
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Felice Friedson is President/CEO of The Media Line Ltd., a non-profit media organization that distributes informational and educational programming from Israel and the Middle East. www.themedialine.org ©2002 The Media Line Ltd.
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