Palestinians launch projectile from West Bank into Israel for first time

July 11, 2006

Ma'am News Agency

Bethlehem- Ma'an- Palestinian factions successfully launched projectiles from the West Bank at towns inside Israel for the first time on Monday evening.

The Al Aqsa Brigades, the military wing of Fatah, and the Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, claimed responsibility for launching of homemade projectiles from the West Bank towns of Jenin and Tulkarem at towns on the Israeli side of the Green Line.

In a statement, the two military groups said that the launching operation was to commemorate the death of the engineers of the projectiles in the West Bank, Warrad and Ibrahem Abahrah, who died in 2005.

The two military wings said that they will continue the launching operations if "Israel does not stop its aggression against the Gaza Strip".

Sources in the Israeli army confirmed to Ma'an that a homemade projectile had been launched at the Israeli kibbutz of Ram On, situated inside the Green Line within the State of Israel, but the army spokesman claimed that the projectile did not reach the desired target.

The launching of projectiles from Jenin would be a qualitative shift in the forms of "resistance" that have been adopted since the beginning of the Intifada from operations in which Palestinians blow themselves up inside Israel, which Israel works hard to stop through barriers, the Wall, arrests and other measures, to projectiles being launched from inside the occupied West Bank, in addition to the projectiles that are launched from the Gaza Strip.

Such launching operations would force Israel to consider how they would face this qualitative transformation in Palestinian military activity in the West Bank.

The spokesman for the Al Aqsa Brigades, Abu Oday, said that the matter is "not new and not surprising", pointing out that Israel has uncovered similar attempts in the past, one of which led to Israel's assassination of Ibrahim Abahrah, one of the leaders of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Jenin.

Abu Oday said that the launching operations from the city of Jenin are a "qualitative transformation", adding that "there is no real problem in the geographical reality to facilitate the launching of homemade projectiles and to reach our goals".