"Last year alone, he added, Iran funneled $9 million through Hizbollah to the Israeli-occupied territories to support terror operations."
http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=960524&C=mideast Posted 07/11/05 07:34 Israel Braces for Expanded Hizbollah Network Tracks Maritime Buys, Links With Palestinian Terror Groups By BARBARA OPALL-ROME, TEL AVIV Israel is girding against a potential deep-sea infiltration and other new types of increasingly sophisticated attacks by Iranian-backed Hizbollah cells capable of operating well beyond the Islamic Shiite organization�s Lebanese home turf. In addition to ambush and attempted kidnapping operations along the Israeli-Lebanese border � the latest of which occurred June 30 in the disputed area known in Israel as Shebaa Farms � Hizbollah is expanding into the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and even into Israel, where citizens are recruited for terror activities, defense officials and counterterrorism experts here said. And while Hizbollah managed to surprise Israel during the past year with two embarrassing unmanned overflights of its northern areas, officials here say they are closely monitoring the organization�s expanding procurement and training networks to minimize chances of again being hoodwinked by the introduction of new methods and means of attack. �For some time, we�ve been following their interest in attacking from the sea. At the same time, we�ve enhanced all appropriate measures to deny them success,� said Amos Malka, a retired major general and former director of Israeli military intelligence. Security officials here confirmed that Israel has begun work on a kilometer-long undersea anti-infiltration barrier along its coastal border with the Gaza Strip. The project, first reported in mid-June editions of the Jerusalem Post, includes a roughly 200-meter-long concrete wall secured into the seabed north of the Strip, while another 800 meters or so will involve a tethered wire fence. Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore�s Nanyang Technological University, said Hizbollah has developed an extensive procurement network outside of the Middle East, particularly in Canada. �What they don�t get directly from Iran or Syria, they buy with Iranian money,� said Gunaratna, a visiting lecturer at the Herzliya, Israel-based Institute for CounterTerrorism. �Recently their focus has been on maritime equipment, scuba gear, speedboats and closed-circuit communications systems [for underwater operations].� In a July 4 exchange, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, commander of Israel�s Southern Command, said he expected Hizbollah operatives working with local Palestinian terror groups to try to incite violence and otherwise take advantage of Israel�s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, scheduled to begin in August. �They�ve made a few attempts to infiltrate [agents and weaponry] from the sea. Don�t forget the role they played in Karine A,� Harel said, referring to Israel�s January 2001 high-seas seizure of a weapon-laden ship destined for the Palestine Authority. Israel, the United States and numerous international counterterrorism authorities have accused Hizbollah agents in Lebanon of brokering the Karine A smuggling deal between senior aides to then-Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat and Iran. The original plan called for more than 50 tons of Iranian arms and munitions to be delivered off the Gaza coast via dozens of specially designed Iranian containers that floated one meter below the water�s surface. Expanding Footprint Perhaps more worrisome than Hizbollah�s expanding presence in the Gaza Strip, security officials and experts here say, is the Lebanese organization�s intensifying efforts to derail diplomatic progress between Israel and the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen. An Israeli intelligence official said June 27 that Abbas has complained to Tel Aviv about Hizbollah�s repeated attempts to undermine the Palestine Authority through financial and operative support not only to rival Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian factions, but to Abbas� own Fatah organization. According to the intelligence official, Hizbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah administers a special unit for infiltrating, supporting and directing Palestinian terror activities in the West Bank and Gaza. �This special unit of the Hizbollah is focused on fighting Abu Mazen and what he stands for,� the official said. �For the first time, there is a Palestinian leader who is at least making an attempt to fight for his people�s right to the pursuit of happiness through nonviolent means. Nasrallah doesn�t hide the fact that he is opposed to the tahdiya,� the Abbas-brokered lull, or cooling-down period, among all armed Palestinian factions, designed to allow Israel to complete its planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank. Ely Karmon, senior research scholar at Israel�s Institute for Counter-Terrorism, said Hizbollah views the continuation of the violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians as crucial to achieving its overall goals. He cited speeches by Nasrallah and Mohamed Hussein Fadlallah, the organization�s spiritual leader, emphasizing the inseparable link between the Islamic cause championed by Hizbollah and the Palestinian struggle against Israel. �During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Fadlallah posted on his official Web site these views under titles such as �The Palestinian Cause Is Where We Stand or Fall,� and �Palestine Is the Battlefront on Which the Future of the Region Will Be Decided�,� Karmon said. Last year alone, he added, Iran funneled $9 million through Hizbollah to the Israeli-occupied territories to support terror operations. �The current bonus paid for a dead or wounded Israeli is 4,000 shekels,� or $909, he said. Citing data from Israel�s Shin Bet security service, Karmon charted a steep rise in Hizbollah-directed or -supported Palestinian armed cells over the past three years. �In 2002, seven Palestinian groups were operated by the Hizbollah; in 2003, there were 14; and in 2004, there were 51 such groups,� Karmon said. The 51 Hizbollah-Palestinian groups discovered in 2004 were directly responsible for 68 separate attacks that collectively claimed the lives of 24 Israeli soldiers and civilians, he said. While statistics for the first half of 2005 are not yet publicly available, the Israeli government in April released details gleaned from three arrested Palestinians from Nablus, who admitted under interrogation they were recruited into Hizbollah. According to the April 5 statement, a 21-year-old student from An-Najah University was recruited into the Lebanese organization during a family visit to Lebanon. Hizbollah trained the student, Wassam Nasser, in small arms fire and covert surveillance and furnished him with a Global Positioning System device hidden in a tape player in his car. �He was requested to pinpoint the location of military bases and checkpoints in the Nablus area; he also sent this information � via the Internet � to his handlers in Lebanon,� according to the Israeli statement. Two other Nablus residents worked with Nasser in providing photos and other information to Hizbollah handlers, said the statement, which condemned what it called an increasingly widespread phenomenon �of recruiting Palestinians into Hizbollah while they are on family visits to Lebanon in order to establish local cells to perpetrate terrorist attacks.� Additionally, Israeli officials said Hizbollah is stepping up efforts to recruit Israeli Arabs for collaborative Hizbollah-Palestinian terror attacks in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel. A February 2004 �Special Information Bulletin� published by the Center for Special Studies, a nongovernmental organization working with Israel�s Ministry of Defense, contained a detailed dossier on two brothers, Israeli citizens from a village near Nazareth, who were recruited to Hizbollah by a Jordanian representative associated with the Palestinian Fatah organization. According to the bulletin, one brother was sent to a Hizbollah training camp via Turkey, �where he was taught the use of various weapons, assembling explosive devices using TNT and C4, and security procedures, such as detecting people following him, etc.� The Israeli bulletin, published by the ministry�s Center for Special Studies, said the case of Sirhan and Ghassan Athamlah � the brothers eventually arrested and interrogated by Israel�s Shin Bet security service � presents �clear evidence once again of how Hizbollah and Iran focus their efforts on recruiting Israeli Arabs to escalate terrorism and damage the fabric of Israeli society.� Increasing Sophistication Military gear and supplies left behind by a three-man Hizbollah cell that penetrated Israel�s northern border in the June 30 attempt to abduct Israeli soldiers attests to the increasing sophistication of the group. According to Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) sources, recovered items included the latest in night-vision and communications equipment, sophisticated survival gear and supplies that could have sustained the commandos for an extended period. Describing the three-man Hizbollah cell as �high-quality,� Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, commander of Israel�s Northern Command, said the men most likely penetrated the border between June 29 and June 30. Speaking to reporters July 3, Gantz said Israeli forces detected the team in the afternoon of June 30, triggering an exchange of fire that killed one Hizbollah operative and apparently allowed the other two to escape. In parallel, Hizbollah fired artillery shells against IDF positions in the area, killing an IDF corporal. Prior to the June 30 border clash, the IDF intelligence officer also acknowledged Hizbollah�s increasing sophistication, not only in operative terms, but in the organization�s ability to move money and materiel into Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza, where Israeli forces in recent months have uncovered explosive charges and high-trajectory munitions that they have traced back to Hizbollah. Moreover, security officials here said they are on the lookout for attempts by Hizbollah-directed Palestinian cells to use model aircraft, oversized kites and other devices to drop explosives on Israeli military or civilian targets. ⢠E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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