"TERROR"

TOP STORY Interview with terror rocket chief Leader says Israel minimizing threat of attacks
	Publishing Date: 12.07.06 08:38
Rocket fell in backyard of Katif resident With Israeli ground troops being sent into the Gaza Strip to contend with Palestinian rockets regularly fired into bordering Jewish communities, terror groups on the other side of the country -- in Judea and Samaria -- have fired a series of rockets the past few days. Judea and Samaria border Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Israel's international airport. Rocket attacks there now open up a whole new front of missile targets against Israel's major population centers. The rocket attacks started last weekend and continued with a claimed rocket firing last night from Jenin in northern Samaria. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, claimed responsibility for all the rocket attacks. Hamas may have assisted with some attacks. Israel claims the terror group's north Samaria rocket infrastructure is minimal. Security analysts maintain publicity about terror groups' current missile capabilities in the territories could generate criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Judea and Samaria withdrawal plan. Judea and Samaria is also commonly called the West Bank. WorldNetDaily today featured excerpts from an interview Aaron Klein conducted last night with Abu Oudai, chief rocket coordinator for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Judea and Samaria. Following is a transcript of the entire conversation, published here exclusively for Galil Report readers: AK: Will there be more rocket attacks from northern Samaria the next few days? AO: Sure. The shooting from Tulkarem and Jenin is only the beginning, the very beginning of our blessed operation of launching rockets from the West Bank against Israeli cities. In the next days and from now on it will not be strange and rare if you find the falling of rockets in the enemy territory. In an interview with you we promised in the past that the next stage of our struggle in the West Bank will be characterized by the shooting of rockets and as I said it is only the beginning. AK: Saturday you launched 3 rockets from Tulkarem. This week, you said you fired one from Jenin. Where will your rockets be launched from in the near future? Will Tulkarem and Jenin be the regular launching pads, or will you also fire from other Judea and Samaria towns, perhaps some that border Jerusalem? AO: I cannot say from what cities we will launch and when, but our goal is to cover all Israeli cities in the center and the north of Israel, which means that we are supplying our brothers all around the West Bank with rockets, rocket technology and everything that is needed in order to create a new equation of fear with the enemy. AK: What kinds of rockets and how many does your group have stockpiled in the northern West Bank? AO: We succeeded with the help of Allah to transfer rockets and technology that will bring in the very next days the number of rockets in the West Bank to hundreds of rockets. As for the kind of rockets, they are very similar to the rockets in Gaza but here in the West Bank we are making huge efforts to improve them and especially their accuracy and distance. We believe that a successful infrastructure of rockets in the West Bank can overturn the whole equation of power between us and the enemy. AK: Do you have the capabilities of producing rockets in the West Bank? Israel says you don't. AO: We have the capabilities of producing the rockets in the West Bank and we are also smuggling them from Gaza. But I will be honest and sincere with you that our weakest point is the lack of experience in the West Bank, but we are working very hard to solve this problem and the coming days will prove that our efforts brought good results and with the help of Allah rockets will become part of Israeli life and routine inside Israel until they will recognize our political, human and historical rights. AK: Where is your rocket infrastructure concentrated? Tulkarem? Jenin? Nablus? AO: Once again I can not answer this question but I told you that we want the whole West Bank to be supplied with rockets. AK: Israel claims your rocket abilities in the northern West Bank are minimal. The IDF has in the past denied rockets were fired when your group claimed to have fired rockets from various West Bank villages. Is Israel minimizing your West Bank rocket abilities? Why would they minimize? AO: I did not say that our capacities are perfect and I admitted we still have some problems due to the lack of experience in the West Bank but I promise our capacities will be at a very high level very soon. The Israeli army said few years ago that Gaza rockets are nothing and that they do not present any threat to the security of Israel and its citizens and we all know what is the truth now and what is the real situation. Everyday our rockets in Gaza become more accurate and more deadly and this is exactly what will happen in the West Bank. It is Israel's own business that they deny and that the minimize. They always lie to their citizens but in the coming days the proofs on the ground will be very clear to the average Israeli in the street and not only to the Israeli political and military leadership. They (Israel) think that if they minimize they can hit our motivation but this is ridiculous. We leave to the Israelis to deal with lies and psychological war and will focus and emphasize on our jihad and our efforts on the ground. AK: If Olmert evacuates Judea and Samaria, which he is looking to do, will this give you the capabilities of hitting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Ben Gurion Airport? AO: It would help with our goal to cover all Israeli regions and to bring them inside the distance of our rockets. It will help place every Israeli site or city is inside our capabilities and if some sites are not yet they will be very soon. The airport, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem every site and city will be targeted. We are speaking about a new era in the conflict between us and the enemy. AK: When do you think rockets will be launched from the West Bank at the same frequency rockets are being launched from Gaza? (Many rockets per week) AO: Very soon. And once all our technical capabilities will allow us, the frequency of shooting rockets will the same as in Gaza and I hope higher than there. AK: Why did you decide this weekend to launch the rockets from Tulkarem? Was it in response to the Israeli ground operations in Gaza? AO: The shooting from Tulkarem is part of our response to the Israeli operation in Gaza and to the massacres the Israeli Nazis are doing there. But the shooting is also part of our strategy to maintain our struggle against the occupation with all the tools we have, shooting attacks, suicide attacks, kidnapping and rockets attacks. AK: Do you have "outside help" in producing rockets or improving rocket technology? Specifically, does Iran, Syria or Hezbollah give you rocket technology? AO: It is our right to receive any help from anybody and our doors is open to every support, from Syria, Iran, Hezbollah or anyone who wants to help and to support the Palestinian people and its resistance. AK: Israel has threatened an unprecedented military response to rocket launchings from the West Bank. Do you take this threat into consideration? AO: I heard many times the expression of unprecedented response. What did Israel do with these threats? The Israelis know that they have used everything against us. The only unprecedented thing is the frequency of the Israeli "empty threats." We are not afraid and we have nothing to fear. AK: The shooting at Tulkarem had an element of collaboration between you and Hamas. Does this mean that you and Hamas have reconciled? Is the Israeli operation in Gaza bringing you to work together after months of killing each other? AO: Indeed the Israeli operation made it clear that we do not have time to spend in fighting each other. All the organizations of the resistance must be united and unified in the jihad against the enemy and must prevent falling in the trap of the conspiracy that the enemy wants us to fall in and is enjoying seeing us fighting each other. We thank the Israelis that their massacres in Gaza brought us to fight together one near the other and we hope that this page of internal fighting was turned away forever and that we will emphasize now on improving our capabilities in hitting the enemy harder and harder. We should remember that we are at the door of a new era, victory seems closer than anytime ever before.