Blogging the Conflict: May 29th, 2007
After yesterday’s tally of 17 Qassam rockets fired into Israel, today’s tally has been initiated with the firing of a Qassam earlier this morning.
Meanwhile, IDF operations against the terrorists have continued, with the IAF firing missiles at a Hamas building, IDF troops killing 2 Hamasholes and arresting 2 more during a gunbattle in Gaza, and IDF troops in Nablus arresting 12 other wanted terrorists (including a palestinian parliament member from ”moderate” Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction.
Updates (Israel time; most recent at top)
Latest updates here.
11:30PM: This Ha’aretz report contradicts the 3:50PM update regarding little Khaled.
10:57PM: According to palestinian sources in Tulkarm, IDF troops are currently surrounding a building where a wanted member of the al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades is hiding.
“Moderate” Mahmoud’s boys are really in the thick of the action today, aren’t they.
8:15PM: Looks like we also got an al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader, while wounding 4 other terrorists. Meanwhile, the terrorists killed earlier (see previous update) were apparently victims of a work accident involving premature detonation.
6:00PM: Ha’aretz reports that palestinian sources are claiming 3 Jihad terrorists have been killed in a Gaza City blast.
5:52PM: The IAF has struck a Hamas training camp in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. How many of these things do Hamas have anyway?
5:36PM: Here’s Israeli Prime Minister Olmert saying something with which I actually agree:
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday blamed Palestinian extremism for being primarily responsible for the suffering of Gaza Strip residents.“Gaza residents are the victims of extremism and leaders who are willing to shed their blood and deprive them of the right to live in peace and security,” said Olmert, during a Knesset event honoring the local authorities.
3:50PM: Yesterday, I reported on the capture of senior terrorist Khaled Shawish. WND has the details of his capture, which reveal that he was undone by little Khaled.
Israel today arrested a longtime wanted terror leader here in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
According to Israeli security officials and Palestinian sources in Ramallah speaking to WND, the terrorist was arrested while having car sex just a few hundred feet from late PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s gravesite.Khaled Shawish, an officer in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Force 17 presidential guards, was captured by undercover Israeli police forces following scores of shooting attacks he is suspected of carrying out. Shawish, who doubles as the Ramallah chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group, previously boasted of involvement in a West Bank shooting attack in December 2000 that killed Israeli ultranationalist leader Benjamin Kahane and Kahane’s wife, Talya.The Brigades is the declared “military wing” of Abbas’ Fatah party.After the Kahane murder, Shawish was extended refuge by Arafat to live in the late PLO leader’s Ramallah compound, widely known as the Muqata. Arafat is buried at the entrance to the Muqata.Shawish continued the past seven years to live in the Muqata, from which, according to Israeli security officials, he directed the Brigades to carry out scores of shootings against Israelis driving on West Bank roads.Several years ago Shawish sustained an injury during a gun battle with the Israel Defense Forces and has since been confined to a wheelchair, although he is still able to drive.
And apparently shtup.
According to Israeli security officials and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades sources in Ramallah, Shawish was arrested after the Israeli police stormed his jeep, which was parked in a lot outside the Muqata, about 200 feet from Arafat’s grave. The sources said at the time of his arrest, Shawish was having intercourse in the back seat of his jeep with a Palestinian woman, whose identity is being withheld by WND. The woman was not his wife.
Assuming he stays in prison and is not released speedily in a misguided “goodwill gesture”, his new wife could very well be a fellow prisoner (Abu Bubba?)
3:27PM: We have been focusing much on the current disunity and disharmony within the palestinian controlled territories. But there are instances of cooperation:
A joint group of the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and the Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed of Fatah, claimed responsibility on Tuesday for launching two homemade projectiles at the Sufa crossing, located east of Rafah between the southern Gaza Strip and Israel.
Awwwww. Isn’t it heartwarming when everyone gets along?
2:53PM: Another Qassam landed near Sderot over half an hour ago.
1:42PM: Prime Minister Olmert and palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet next week, to discuss “security issues.”
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
