Illustrative naval ship off the coast of Israel. By Joshua Spurlock
Palestinian terrorists once again were seeking to exploit their own civilians to attack Israel, which arrested ten of them who were part of a plot to launch a rocket attack and kidnapping against the Israeli Navy. The plan, according to an Israeli press release on the arrests, was to lure a Navy vessel with one Palestinian boat and then have a second boat fire a Cornet ship-to-ship rocket at the Israeli vessel, intending to kill and wound crew members. A third boat would then swoop in and kidnap Israeli sailors to use in prisoner exchanges.
The plotters were caught last month aboard a fishing boat that had gone outside the fishing zone and was suspected of gathering intelligence on the Navy, notes the press release, which was jointly published on Wednesday by the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA). One of the Palestinians is a fisherman and a member of the Islamic Jihad terrorist faction. He had been directed to plan an attack from superiors, turning his otherwise innocent-looking fishing expedition into information-gathering for terrorism and it wasn’t the first time he’d scoped out naval vessels.
The press release said the incident “once again proves that the terrorist organizations are trying to exploit the civilian easements that Israel has repeatedly tried to enact vis-à-vis fishing in order to advance terrorist attacks that also harm the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel has long maintained a fishing zone around the Gaza Strip in an effort to curtail terrorist activities. Last month proved again why the measures are needed.
Said the press release, “The security forces—on land, sea and air—will continue their counter-terrorism efforts.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, April 4, 2018)