FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
PA admits Jewish towns turned into 'training camps'
Follows WND story former Gaza capital now Hamas terror zone
Posted: November 25, 2005
8:19 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein WorldNetDaily.com
www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47587

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority admitted in an official document
published that today parts of Gush Katif, the former Jewish communities of
Gaza, are now "training camps" for terror groups.

In an exclusive story last week, WND reported Hamas has turned Neve Dekalim,
the former capital of Gush Katif, into a "martyrs training camp," and has
used the territory to fire rockets into Israel.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef yesterday toured Gaza's former
Jewish communities and detailed a PA plan to bring security to the area.
Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in August, the land that comprised Gush
Katif has been the scene of regular internal Palestinian clashes.

An official dossier of Yousef's schedule released today by the Interior
Ministry states, "The Minister Nasser Yousef toured the newly liberated
areas of Gaza, parts of which are used by the Palestinian groups as training
camps."

As WND reported, in what some expelled Jewish residents of the area called
the "ultimate insult," Hamas leaders said they turned Neve Dekalim into a
"martyr training camp" and have used the territory to launch rockets into
Israel.

Earlier this month officials placed barbed wire around Neve Dekalim, as well
as signs posted in Arabic which describe the neighborhood as a "closed
military zone."

Senior Hamas sources told WND the group transformed Dekalim into a "military
training camp for martyrs," boasting that several Qassam rockets have been
fired from the former Jewish capital into nearby Israeli Negev towns.

Hamas has taken credit for Israel's Gaza withdrawal and has become a
formidable force in the area. It swept local municipal elections, and
analysts expect the terror group to do well in upcoming Palestinian
parliamentary elections.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas chief in Gaza, told WND in an exclusive interview
last month "that our martyr operations caused Israel to withdraw from Gaza
is the truth and the reality. ... [Martyr operations] are the option that
the great majority of our people, except a minority of opportunistic people,
is deeply convinced is the best choice because any negotiation with the
occupiers will be helpless and will not bring back to the Palestinians any
of their rights and it will not free their lands."

Al-Zahar warned Hamas would launch terror attacks to drive Israel from the
West Bank and ultimately from the entire Jewish state.

Since the Gaza withdrawal, more than 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza
into Israeli Negev towns. Israel says Palestinian groups are transferring
rocket technology and heavy weaponry to Judea and Samaria.

Neve Dekalim was the largest town in Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish
communities. Prior to Israel's withdrawal, the neighborhood regularly was
bustling with Jewish residents dining, shopping and going to work. It
contained Katif's industrial
zone, government buildings and some of the largest synagogues and stores in
the area. Housing was tight, with a total of 467 units in the neighborhood
filled by Jewish families who moved in from throughout Israel and across the
world.

WND's story last week of a Hamas terror camp in their former city saddened
Jewish residents who had been expelled from the area.

Dror Venunu, former director of the Gush Katif Development Fund and a
Dekalim resident, told WND, "This is the ultimate insult. I didn't have one
illusion the Palestinians would use our town to build something good. We
warned about this to the Israeli population, that giving Gush Katif will
reward all the terror organizations. Still, to hear where my home once stood
is now a Hamas terror camp is very difficult and sickening. This is like
making a holy place into total filth."

Rachel Sapperstein, a former Dekalim community leader, told WND, "I had not
expected anything less from the Palestinians. I would have assumed they
would take our beautiful homes, synagogues and schools and turn them into
centers for terror."
Sapperstein said prior to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza she was in the
planning stages for a new girls' dormitory to be constructed in Neve Dekalim
in the memory of the first Gush Katif resident killed in a terror attack.

"I thank God I didn't build that dormitory," Sapperstein said, "because my
heart would shatter if I knew that from it would come a Hamas training
camp."
---
Aaron Klein is WorldNetDaily's Jerusalem bureau chief, whose past interview
subjects have included Yasser Arafat, Ehud Barak, Mahmoud al-Zahar and
leaders of the Taliban.