IDF tells Egyptian army: You must stop infiltrators - 1,000 incidents in
2002 [Breaking silence?]

By Amos Harel Ha'aretz 3 July ?2003
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/314053.html

[IMRA: This is one of a series of stories now being leaked by officers in
the IDF out of concern that the politicians have lost control over the
situation. ISS (Shabak) head Avi Dichter's highly unusual public remarks -
remarks that clashed dramatically with the Sharon government's actions (he
said that he was confident that security control in cities in the West Bank
would not be transferred to the Palestinians before the PA proved that they
were confiscating weapons and taking other measures against the terror
infrastructure in the Gaza Strip - this when less than 24 hours later
security control was transferred to the PA in Bethlehem. It should be
understood that this is about as far as security officials will go in
Israel. Over the entire course of Oslo, there were scores of security men
who were certain that the policies Israeli governments were following in
Oslo would lead to disaster, but none were willing to forego their
paychecks.]

Israel Defense Forces officers have passed on a protest to the Egyptian
military with regard to the numerous infiltration's of terrorists - mostly
Palestinians - from Egypt into Israel over the past two years. The protest
was voiced during the most recent periodic meeting between officers from the
two armies.

In 2002, the IDF counted some 1,000 incidents of infiltrations across the
border with Egypt - between the Rafah border post and Eilat. This year has
seen a slight fall-off in the infiltrations.

Some 80 percent of the infiltrations have occurred in the northern section
of the border, and most have been criminally motivated - drug and commodity
smuggling, and women brought into the country for prostitution rackets.
Nevertheless, some of the infiltrations have been security-related.

Since 2001, the IDF has reported six incidents in which terrorists have
infiltrated across the border with Egypt for the purpose of carrying out
attacks. For the most part, the infiltrators were apprehended close to the
border fence following confrontations with IDF patrols.

In most of these incidents, the infiltrators turned out to be Palestinian
residents of the Gaza Strip who were unable to carry out terror attacks
inside the Green Line due to the perimeter fence around the Strip, and chose
instead to cross over from Rafah into Egypt, head south and then attempt to
reenter Israel across the Sinai and Negev border, which is less protected.

The last infiltration of this kind, in January, led to the death of an
Israeli soldier in the Nitzana region. Two terrorists were shot and killed
in the incident.

During the last security coordination meeting, the Egyptian officers spoke
of their intentions to deploy an additional 200 policemen along the border
with Israel. The IDF officers charged that this was not enough. Your
problem, the IDF officers told their Egyptian counterparts, is not along the
border with Israel. It begins at Cairo's airport and the Suez border
crossings, they added.

According to the IDF officers, Egypt does not conduct sufficient security
checks at these points, does not filter out individuals with ties to terror
organizations, and does not prevent such individuals from approaching the
border with Israel.

The defense establishment believes that pressure on Cairo from Washington
will lead to an improvement in cooperation in this area.