Air raid sirens blared across the southern Israeli communities of Sderot and the Eshkol Regional Council this morning, after the firing of a missile by Palestinian terrorists. The trajectory of the missile went awry, however, and the explosive landed in the Mediterranean Sea of the coast of Gaza instead of striking its intended target of Israel’s civilian population.
Also this morning, an incendiary airborne device launched from Gaza sparked yet another fire in southern Israel. A civilian group monitoring incidence of Palestinian fire terrorism has recorded an overall minimum total of 1193 separate blazes in Israeli forests, nature reserves, agricultural fields, commercial and privately-owned properties.
The ongoing violence comes amid reports that Israel has negotiated a long-term truce with the Islamist Hamas leaders of the Strip to restore calm to the border region.
In related developments, it was today cleared for publication that the Shin Bet thwarted a major plot by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades to establish a terror network in the West Bank. According to the Israel’s internal security service, the Hamas military wing tried to infiltrate a Palestinian explosives expert into Israel, with a humanitarian permit that had been issued for medical treatment. The suspect identified as Fadi Abu al-Sabah, a 35 year-old resident of Gaza Strip, was arrested on May 18, 2019.
Sabah is suspected of undergoing more than a year of intensive training for a covert operation aimed at forming and teaching West Bank terror cells to manufacture bombs for use in terror attacks against Israeli citizens.
The Shin Bet revealed that it has captured more than a dozen other Hamas operatives involved in similar attempts over the past several months, many of which also involved the cynical abuse of Israel’s pledge to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians.