(CPR)courtesy, professionalism, and respect in reporting? (moved from ATSNN)

www.debka.com
12/12/04
At least 11 Israelis injured, 4 critically, by one-and-a-half ton blast from tunnel dug under Israeli military compound at Rafah border crossing to Egypt Sunday night. Hours later, engineering and homeland security units still digging to rescue trapped soldier.
Blast followed by prolonged Palestinian mortar and gunfire, more explosions and anti-tank missiles against Kerem Shalom outside Gaza Strip.
DEBKAfile reveals: Assault carried out by battalion-scale force drawn from all of Gaza�s Palestinian groups under command of Palestinian Liberation Army commando-trained veteran Brig. Saib Ajez of Khan Younes.
OC southern command Dan Harel reports 42 Palestinian terrorist attacks in Gaza Strip in one week. This was no ordinary terrorist attack but a military operation proper.
For weeks, Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip had been braced for a tunnel blast at the Rafah crossing, the only exit point for Palestinians living there. The troops closed the crossing to hunt for an underground passage and warn the Palestinians that an attack at this sensitive point would hurt them by halting their regular traffic between Gaza and Sinai and Egypt.
But then world media images of suffering Palestinian women and children denied access to their homes on the other side of the border had their effect. The certain warnings by Israeli officers that a bombing attack was in the works went unheeded. Under the threat of �a human catastrophe,� Israel reopened the crossing with no guarantee of non-attack demanded from the Palestinian Authority, its presidential candidate, prime minister or other officials � or even from local Palestinian commanders who commune regularly with Egyptian and British intelligence officers.
General Mussa Arafat, who knows the exact location and function of every smuggling tunnel from Sinai was not warned off; neither was Egyptian intelligence minister Omar Suleiman who spends hours talking to Hamas and Jihad Islami leaders asked to mediate. The gateway to Egypt swung open to Palestinian traffic unconditionally.
From that moment, the countdown began for the strike against the Israeli military position at Rafath. It ended Sunday night, December 12 in the largest military assault mounted so far in the four-year Palestinian war.
No single terrorist group, whether Hamas or Fatah, would have been capable of an action on this scale, nor would their operatives have commanded the logistical, intelligence and financial resources to carry it through. Who orchestrated the assault and timed the explosions and the mortar fire?
This question jars harshly amid the new wave of optimism over the prospects of peace and the apparent decline in terrorist attacks gripping top-level Israeli politicians. The fact that Palestinian fighting elements are constantly improving methods, regrouping and learning from past mistakes is damped down by the euphoric atmosphere generated by the impending entry of dovish Labor to the Sharon coalition and the high hopes riding on Mahmoud Abbas� expected election.
But Sunday night, all the Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip proved they could work together under a single commander. DEBKAfile�s military sources name him as 62-year old Khan Younes-based Palestinian brigadier general Saib Ajez, a veteran officer of the moribund commando-trained Palestinian Liberation Army and the best tactical brain the Palestinians have. He has 20,000 men under arms at his disposal. The rank and file are members of the Palestinian General Security Service, but their disciplined hard core is made up of Fatah, Hamas and Jihad Islami units in Rafah, Deir el Balah and Khan Younes. This unified force Ajez deployed last May to repulse the IDF�s first offensive against the smuggling tunnels of Rafah.
The attack is his way of saying that, even if Abbas is elected in the West Bank, Suleiman continues his conversations in Cairo, Sharon builds a new government and pulls every last Israeli out of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian war will not be touched. It will go on in Gaza, inevitably ignite the West Bank and, even if the Israeli army quits every last inch of Palestinian-claimed land, subterranean passages burrowed under the borders and security fences will carry Palestinian warfare into Israel�s heartland.
General Ajez has no interest in a cushy job in the future Abbas administration or pats on the back from Brussels. He has undertaken the mission of carrying out Yasser Arafat�s legacy. Therefore, while peace diplomacy may begin in Jerusalem, Cairo and Ramallah, the Palestinians dedicated to violence are determined to bomb the palaver into silence � exactly as they have done before. They are sure they will have the last word.
(what follows is an example of the hypocrytically tainted and biased reporting by the associated press
and Khan Younis Governor Hosni Zourab):
Israelis attack refugee camp
By Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City
December 12, 2004
THE Israeli army fired three tank shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip today, moderately wounding five schoolchildren and lightly wounding two others, Palestinian officials said.
The army denied firing tank shells, saying it used only light weapons to target militants attempting to launch a mortar shell. Associated Press Television News footage showed a large hole in the roof of a building behind the school that appeared to house a playground.
Palestinian officials said the shell wounded seven children, two of whom were treated at the scene. The other students, aged 8-12, suffered shrapnel wounds and were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, Palestinian medical officials said.
"There is nothing to justify this random shelling," Khan Younis Governor Hosni Zourab said.
The attack came after Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell at an Israeli target in the southern Gaza Strip, causing no damage or injuries, the army said. Settlers said militants had fired two other projectiles at a settlement near Khan Younis overnight.
Israel often retaliates against militant attacks. On Friday, Israeli troops killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl in southern Gaza as they shot toward militants who had fired mortar shells at a nearby Jewish settlement.
The firing of mortar shells and rockets at settlements in Gaza and nearby towns in Israel has threatened Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next summer. Palestinian militants hope an escalation of violence in Gaza will make it appear as if Israel is fleeing the area.
Palestinian militants also fired three mortar shells and a homemade rocket toward Jewish settlements in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, damaging a building, but causing no injuries, the army said.
Most of the projectiles fell in open areas in the northern coastal strip or just north, inside Israel, the army said.
One of the shells badly damaged a building in the Jewish settlement of Nissanit, settlers said. Palestinians in the area reported hearing a large explosion from the area of the settlement.
The Associated Press


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