Tali Hatuel and her four daughters, murdered by the PRC in May, 2004
Yesterday’s terror attack was perpetrated by the so-called ‘Popular Resistance Committees’ (PRC). In retaliation, Israel struck a PRC meeting in Gaza, killing PRC official Khaled Shaath, ‘military wing’ chief Abu Awad Nayrab and PRC operatives Imad Hamad, Abu Jamil Shaath and Khaled Masri. Shaath’s 2-year old son was also killed, according to Palestinian sources.
The PRC is (or was) a vicious bunch, formed by dissident Fatah members in 2000. Here is a list (from Wikipedia, but well-documented) of some of their activities:
The November 20, 2000 bombing of a bus full of children as it passed near Kfar Darom, killing two
The October 8 shooting attack on a bus carrying airport workers near the Rafah terminal on October 8, 2000, wounding 8 civilians, and a similar attack on a car on the road from Kerem Shalom to the Rafah terminal, killing the woman driver
Mortar attacks on April 28, 2001 on the Netzer Hazani agricultural Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip (wounding five, one seriously), and similar attacks on Kfar Darom on April 29 and on Atzmona on May 7 of the same year.
The February 14, 2002 killing of three Israeli soldiers using large explosive charges designed for tanks, and similar killings of three more soldiers on March 14 and one more on September 5 of that same year.
The May 2, 2004 killing of the unarmed and pregnant Tali Hatuel, and her four daughters aged 2 to 11, on Kissufim road. The PRC and Islamic Jihad jointly claimed responsibility, also claiming that the attack was in retaliation for earlier Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killings of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi.
The January 13, 2005 killing of six Israeli settlers [sic] at the Karni Passage near Gaza, carried out together with Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.
On February 4, 2008 the Israeli Air Force assassinated the PRC’s top military leader, Amer Qarmut (Abu Said) in response to a joint suicide bombing by the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Dimona, which killed one Israeli.
On March 6, 2008 the PRC detonated a roadside charge near the Kissufim crossing, killing an Israeli officer and wounding three others, one critically.
The murder of Tali Hatuel and her children was particularly vicious and shocking, not that every murder isn’t evil:
Tali Hatuel and her four daughters were killed when two Palestinian terrorists fired on an Israeli car at the entrance to the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif. They were on their way to campaign against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan. Their white Citroen station wagon spun off the road after the initial shooting, then the attackers approached the vehicle and shot the occupants dead at close range. The Hatuels’ car was riddled with bullets, and the carpet inside was stained with blood. The girls were killed hugging one another. On the car was a bumper sticker saying, “Uprooting the settlements, victory for terror.” — Israel MFA
Tali didn’t live to see the ‘disengagement’ she was so opposed to, and the terrorists got their victory. It didn’t stop the PRC from ‘resisting occupation’ even after every last Jew was gone from Gaza.
Yesterday’s attacks, including the use of buried IEDs, were in keeping with the PRC’s modus operandi. The security services had advance warning, but unfortunately expected the attack at a different time and place. A team from the police YAMAM unit and IDF soldiers from the Golani division were in the area, and their immediate response prevented what could have been a far worse disaster — at the cost of a veteran YAMAM officer and a young Golani soldier.
The PRC kills Americans, too:
On October 15, 2003, a U.S. embassy convoy was on a visit to Gaza to interview ‘Palestinian’ candidates for Fulbright scholarship programs in the United States. The convoy consisted of three fully armored but unmarked Suburbans. The first vehicle was occupied by the diplomats on the interview mission. The second vehicle was occupied by American contract protective security specialists: John Branchizio (36), John Linde (30), and Mark Parsons (31). The third vehicle had agents of the Diplomatic Security Service on a “route and area familiarization†trip.
Just after the convoy entered the Gaza Strip from the Erez checkpoint, an explosion totally destroyed the second vehicle in the motorcade, killing the three specialists. A U.S. embassy document states that the device appeared to have been “placed under the road and remotely detonated as the vehicles passed.†— Israel Matzav
The US demanded that the Palestinian Authority (PA) investigate the attack. PRC leader Amer Qarmut (killed in 2008) admitted that he had dug the hole for the bomb while PA guards watched, although he denied placing the bomb itself. The PA arrested several low-level PRC members who were soon released. The US Court of Appeals for DC has just ruled that the family of one of the contractors has the right to sue the PA in US courts.
***
The IDF spokesperson reports that more than 25 rockets have been fired into Israel in the past two days. One person was killed and several injured when a Grad missile struck Ashdod.
Always the victim, PA official Nabil Shaath (I don’t know if he is related to the PRC terrorists mentioned above) claims that everything is Israel’s fault:
According to Shaath, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interested in military escalation in the Strip in a bid to divert attention from the socio-economic crisis in Israel.
He further accused Israel of seeking regional escalation in order to torpedo Palestinian efforts vis-Ã -vis the United Nations in September. “Israel’s madness will not deter the Palestinian leadership from appealing to the UN, the opposite is true, and it will push the leadership to work harder in its efforts.”
In a press release on Friday Shaath alleged that Israel was looking for an excuse to carry out collective punishment against the Palestinian people saying: “This is a war crime aimed at causing efforts by the Palestinian Authority and other factions to avoid armed conflict to fail.”
Shaath has called on the international community to act swiftly to stop what he calls “Israeli aggression”.
Remarkably, many will agree with him. What will it take for people to understand the truth about the ‘Palestinian cause’ and its exponents?
I am writing this response two days after this article was posted. There have been more shellings from Gaza, and at least one more Israeli killed and more injured. The anti- missle defense works partially but by no means can deal with massive rocket- fire.
To add to the difficulty the Egyptians are moving in the direction most anticipated. They are not apologetic about the terrorists entering from territory under their control. They instead are displaying an angry posture towards us. Clearly their direction is not the one we desire. And they make more difficult anything we do in relation to Gaza.
I sense, perhaps wrongly, that we are not going to escalate with September 20 waiting for us. Anything short of a full takeover of Gaza will not stop rocket- fire. And I do not think we are about to move toward a second Goldsmith commission at the moment.