Excerpts: 950 Hizbullah operatives in Germany Israel for security cancels
West Bankers’ Gaza visits . IS in Egypt’s Sinai clashes rage 1 July 2015
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)1 July ’15:”Intelligence Agency Says Around
1,000 Hizbullah Operatives in Germany”.by Naharnet Newsdesk
SUBJECT:950 Hizbullah operatives in Germany
QUOTE:”Germany’s domestic intelligence has warned that Hizbullah has 950
active operatives in the country while Islamist Movement Hamas, which rules
the Gaza Strip, has300.”
FULL TEXT:Germany's domestic intelligence agency has warned that Hizbullah
has 950 active operatives in the country while Islamist Movement Hamas,
which rules the Gaza Strip, has 300.
The agency (BfV) did not give further details on Hizbullah's alleged
operations in Germany but said the country “is on the spectrum of goals for
Islamic terrorists.”
In the report it issued on Tuesday[30June], the agency also warned that the
Islamic State group's recruitment of individuals willing to travel to Syria
and Iraq was a cause for alarm among security services.
It said the IS with its self-imposed "Caliphate" was trying to establish a
"logistic center" larger than al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
BfV, which is headquartered in Cologne, said if that happened, terrorists
would be capable of coordinating complex attacks.
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the agency, warned last month that a growing
number of women have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight alongside IS militants
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebnon) 1 July ’15:”Israel Cancels West Bankers’Gaza
Visits after Attacks”,Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Israel for security cancels West Bankers’ Gaza visits
Israel said Wednesday[1 July] it was revoking permits for hundreds of
Palestinians living in the West Bank to visit relatives in the Gaza Strip,
after a series of attacks, some fatal.
The announcement by COGAT, the agency that manages civilian affairs in the
Palestinian territories, was the latest reversal to measures easing movement
for Palestinians during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
It came as 26-year-old Malachi Rosenfeld, shot dead in the West Bank on his
way back from a basketball game Monday[29 June], was buried in the Kochav
Hashachar settlement where he lived.
Education minister and religious-nationalist Jewish Home party leader
Naftali Bennett, speaking in a graveyard eulogy, said "our enemy is not a
partner for peace; their way is that of terror and will be treated as such."
Over the past 10 days, there have been a number of violent incidents in
which Palestinians have knifed or shot at Israeli security personnel, as
well as shot dead an Israeli hiker, in annexed east Jerusalem and the West
Bank.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday[30 June] "there was no doubt that
one of the significant factors behind the attacks was incitement,
specifically of the Palestinian Authority."
The army has not said if it believes whether Monday's[29June] shootings
were carried out by a lone attacker, a small group or a larger network.
On Wednesday[1 July], the Shin Bet internal security agency announced it had
arrested 40 members of militant Islamist group Hamas in and around the
northern West Bank city Nablus.
They were part of an attempt to set up a network that would enable attacks
on Israeli targets, Shin Bet said, and included contact with Hossam Badran,
a Qatar-based spokesman for the group, which rules the Gaza Strip.
Those detentions led to the arrest of two Hamas operatives in nearby city
Jenin who were preparing an attack, Shin Bet said.
There was no immediate link between the arrests and the wave of attacks,
which led COGAT Tuesday[30 June] to tighten access of West Bank Palestinians
for prayer at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque. Men under 50 and women between
16-30 would only be admitted if they held individual permits.
Israel had eased some restrictions on Palestinian movement from the occupied
West Bank to Jerusalem for Ramadan.
But in response to the June 21 stabbing of a policeman, it revoked entry
permits to residents of the attacker's village and canceled permission for
500 West Bank Palestinians to fly from Israel's Ben Gurion airport.
SOURCE:Naharnet (Lebanon)1July ’15:”Israel’s Fight against Iran gets
Animated”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:Israel video compares Iran with ISIS
QUOTE:” Netanyahu:‘Why would anyone consider giving the Islamic State of
Iran,which is a lot more powerful than ISIS, and acts with much greater
power than ISIS, to have the additional power of nuclear weapns? ‘ “
FULL TEXT:Israel has fired the latest shot in its campaign against the
impending deal on Iran's nuclear program, with an animated video comparing
the Islamic republic to the Islamic State group.
"The Islamic state of Iran -- like ISIS. Just much bigger," is the title and
punchline of the cartoon clip posted on Tuesday on Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's official Twitter account.
The 27-second video was released hours before the original June 30 deadline
for the accord between Iran and the so-called P5+1 powers -- the United
States, Britain, China, France and Russia plus Germany, which was ultimately
extended to July 7.
It shows a jeep with a black IS flag carrying three members dressed in black
and waving assault rifles while running over a line of orange jumpsuit-clad
prisoners representing the U.S., Christians, gay rights, and Israel.
"Islamic State sweeps through the Middle East, killing anyone who isn't
exactly like them," a narrator says in U.S.-accented English.
"Imagine how dangerous Islamic State would be if they had armoured
divisions, fighter jets and ballistic missiles," he continues, as the jeep
morphs into heavy military hardware, with nuclear reactors appearing in the
background.
"Imagine Islamic State building atomic bombs," says the narrator, as the
black IS flags become Iranian and the Islamic State members become Iranian
soldiers led by a bearded mullah.
"Well, maybe it's not that hard to imagine," he says, over an image of the
cleric holding missiles while hugging a nuclear reactor.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the deal being forged with world powers
could leave Iran with the ability to develop nuclear weapons, and he has not
ruled out the use of military force to prevent it.
Iran denies its nuclear program has military aims.
The Israeli premier has been using IS to as a symbol of what he sees as the
Iranian threat, citing on Tuesday[30 June] a U.S. state department report
which "confirmed (Iran) as a preeminent state sponsor of terrorism."
"Why would anyone consider giving the Islamic state of Iran, which is a lot
more powerful than ISIS, and acts with much greater power than ISIS, to have
the additional power of nuclear weapons?" he asked, using an alternative
acronym for IS.
Israel is believed to be the only country in its region with atomic bombs,
although it has never confirmed its nuclear military capacity.
+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon)1July ’15:”Unprecedented IS Attacks Kill at
Least 70 in Egypt’s Sinai as Clashes Rage”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT:IS in Egypt’s Sinai clashes rage
QUOTES:“F-16 warplanes bombarded the militants as they fought police and
soldiers …after striking military checkpoints in a surprise attack after
dawn”,” ‘It’s a war….the battle is ongoing’ a senior military official told
AFP”
FULL TEXT:Islamic State group jihadists launched an unprecedented wave of
attacks Wednesday[1 July] on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula that
killed at least 70 people, in a major challenge to President Abdel Fattah
al-Sisi.
F-16 warplanes bombarded the militants as they fought police and soldiers on
the streets of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid after striking military
checkpoints in a surprise attack after dawn.
The violence came two days after state prosecutor Hisham Barakat was
assassinated in a Cairo car bombing. He was the most senior government
official killed in the jihadist insurgency.
In the capital on Wednesday[1 July], police killed senior Muslim Brotherhood
member Nasser al-Houfi and eight others during a raid on an apartment,
security officials and a member of the Islamist movement said.
The Sinai attacks, in which car bombs were used, were the most brazen in
their scope since jihadists launched an insurgency in 2013 following the
army's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The victims included several civilians, according to security and medical
officials, who said 38 militants were also killed.
"It's war. The battle is ongoing," a senior military official told AFP.
"It's unprecedented, in the number of terrorists involved and the type of
weapons they are using."
- Gunmen on the streets:-Militants took over rooftops and fired
rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in Sheikh Zuweid after mining
its exits to block reinforcements, a police colonel said.
F-16 jets struck the militants in several locations in the town, officials
and a witness said.
"There are gunmen on the streets. They have planted mines everywhere," said
the witness in Sheikh Zuweid.
Explosions were heard and plumes of smoke were seen over Sheikh Zuweid from
the neighboring Palestinian Gaza Strip, witnesses there said.
The Islamic State group said its jihadists surrounded the police station
after launching attacks on 15 checkpoints and security installations using
suicide car bombers and rockets.
Security and medical officials said ambulances could not get to the scene of
the attacks because of heavy fighting in which the military brought in
Apache helicopters.
"Ambulances are waiting in front of the hospital. They can't leave. People
are bringing in the casualties," a health official told AFP.
Troops regularly come under attack in the Sinai, where jihadists have killed
hundreds of policemen and soldiers since Morsi's overthrow.
In a statement released online, IS said the assault had involved three
suicide bombers.
"In a blessed raid enabled by God, the lions of the caliphate have
simultaneously attacked more than 15 checkpoints belonging to the apostate
army," the group said.
Sisi pledged to toughen laws and suggested fast track executions following
the state prosecutor's assassination, and a cabinet meeting on Wednesday[1
July] was expected to pass the amendments.
Sisi, the former army chief who toppled Morsi, won elections last year
pledging to wipe out militants.
The government designated Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood a "terrorist group" in
December 2013 as part of a crackdown on the opposition that has left
hundreds of his supporters dead and thousands in jail.
Courts have sentenced hundreds to death, including Morsi, who was convicted
of involvement in attacks on police stations. His sentence is being
appealed.
- Months of bloodshed: The government often blames the Brotherhood for
attacks, but the deadliest have been claimed by the IS affiliate in Sinai.
Wednesday's[1 July] attack was similar to a series of ambushes on April 2 in
which dozens of militants attacked checkpoints, killing 15 soldiers.The
militants kidnapped a soldier and later executed him, and made off with
weapons.
In January, a combined rocket and car bomb attack on a military base, a
nearby police headquarters and a residential complex for troops and police
killed at least 24 people, most of them soldiers.
The attacks have come despite stringent security measures imposed by the
army in the Sinai, including a night-time curfew and the creation of a
buffer zone along the Gaza border to prevent militants infiltrating from the
Palestinian territory.
The dominant jihadist group in the Sinai, previously known as Ansar Beit
al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem in English, pledged allegiance to IS in
Iraq and Syria last November.The group is believed to be led by a shadowy
Egyptian cleric, Abu Osama al-Masry, and has recruited at least one former
special forces officer who had left the military.
The militants have mostly focused their attacks on soldiers and police,
killing hundreds since Morsi's overthrow.
They previously said they avoided targeting civilians but claimed
responsibility for a suicide bombing on a tourist coach in February 2014
that killed three South Koreans and their driver.
Police foiled an attempted attack at a pharaonic temple crowded with
tourists in Luxor last month.
=================================
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA
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