COUNTER-TERRORIST ACTIONS
In 2004, the security forces foiled 365 suicide attacks in Judea and Samaria. Those identified as "Arrested in their homes" include those who agreed to perpetrate terror attack and were waiting to be sent to attack.
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In 2004, the security forces foiled an additional 159 terrorist attacks that were on the verge of being perpetrated.
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SECURITY FENCE
The
security fence continues to prove its effectiveness in Samaria-based terrorist infrastructures from preventing large-scale deadly terrorist attacks. In 2003, these infrastructures succeeded in perpetrating 12 large-scale deadly terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 74 people and the wounding of 374. In 2004, these infrastructures succeeded in perpetrating two large-scale deadly terrorist attacks, which resulted in the deaths of 14 people and the wounding of 106.
The terrorist infrastructures are trying to overcome the obstacle of the security fence in several ways. Thus, for example, terrorist elements are trying to bypass the fence via areas in which there is still no fence, via the agricultural gates along the fence, via going under/over the fence, etc. Most prominent is the trend of moving the departure points for terrorists to Judea, where there is no fence, by using terrorist infrastructures there as a forward platform for dispatching terrorists to Israel.
Judea had been marked approximately one year ago by Samaria-based terrorist infrastructures as a significant weak point that must be utilized in order to bypass the security fence. This is because extensive parts of the fence have not been completed which enables the dispatching of terrorists to Israel along several potential infiltration routes without Israeli tracking systems and because the absence of a significant obstacle in the area between Samaria and Judea allows for the relatively free movement of terrorists and war materiel between the two areas. An example of this are the two of the more recent suicide attacks in Israel – the 1.11.04 attack at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv and the 22.9.04 attack at French Hill in Jerusalem – and in a series of planned attacks that have been thwarted in recent months after the perpetrators had already gone from Samaria to Judea.
Today, the main routes for dispatching terrorists are: From Samaria via Ramallah to Jerusalem, or from Samaria via Jerusalem’s northern neighborhoods to into the city. In this context, it should be pointed out that 1.11.04 Tel Aviv suicide attack was perpetrated by a terrorist who – accompanied by another terrorist – had gone from Nablus to Tapuah junction to Kalandia to the Abu Dis area (where he joined up with an eastern Jerusalem taxi driver) to Highway #1 to Tel Aviv. Three Israeli citizens were murdered in the attack. The Tel Aviv bombing is a clear indicator of the trends which strengthened among the terrorist organizations regarding the perpetrating of attacks: Using weaker populations (the Tel Aviv attack was perpetrated by a 16-year-old minor), and exploiting the population of eastern Jerusalem, to perpetrate terrorist attacks.