RANGE OF TERROR ROCKETS INCREASES

Israel: Hizbullah Increases Rocket Range - Matti Friedman (AP)
Senior Israeli defense officials said Thursday that Hizbullah has dramatically increased its arsenal of rockets and their range.  The officials said Hizbullah has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of 186 miles that can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated center.

See also IDF: Islamic Jihad Producing Longer-Range Rockets - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
The Islamic Jihad terror group has recently begun manufacturing rockets with a 12.5-mile range, similar to the Grad (Katyusha) rockets already in use by terror organizations in Gaza.  The new rockets are armed with a much deadlier warhead that carries double the amount of explosives carried by Kassam rockets.   Armed groups in Gaza have also recently obtained two new types of Iranian-made mortar shells, some of which can travel up to 6.2 miles.

SEE ALSO: Defense officials: Hizbullah has rockets that can reach Dimona (JPost)

ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER ADMITS SECURITY FENCE THWARTS TERROR

Palestinian Terrorist Leader Admits Israeli Security Fence Blocks Suicide Bombing Attacks (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah told the Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq on March 23 that rocket fire had replaced suicide bombing attacks because Israel had found ways to protect itself from such attacks.

"For example, they built a separation fence in the West Bank. We do not deny that it limits the ability of the resistance to arrive deep within [Israeli territory] to carry out suicide bombing attacks."

IAF AIRSTRIKE KILLS GAZA ROCKET CREW

Airstrike Kills Islamic Jihad Rocket Crew in Gaza - Yuval Azoulay and Avi Issacharoff
Three Palestinian Islamic Jihad members were killed Saturday in an Israel Air Force strike east of Gaza City as the men were on their way to launch Kassam rockets at Israel. According to the Shin Bet security service, the group had fired the rocket that cost Osher Twito, 8, of Sderot, his leg last month.

On Friday, Hamas militants directed machine-gun fire at an Israeli helicopter, hitting one of the aircraft's panels. The aircraft returned to base and did not make an emergency landing. According to reports, Hamas is in possession of more than 10 Russian-made KPV-14.5 heavy machine guns. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said the machine guns were confiscated from Fatah during the Hamas takeover of Gaza last year. (Ha'aretz)

UPDATED: IDF TERMINATES ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADERS

Anti-terror unit kills Islamic Jihad's Bethlehem leadership (JPost)
Five terrorists, including the Islamic Jihad leadership in Bethlehem, were killed in two clashes with the IDF in the West Bank on Wednesday.

In the morning, IDF soldiers surrounded a house in Seida, near Tulkarm, and in ensuing gun battles killed Saleh Karkur, 27, an Islamic Jihad gunman. The IDF demolished half of the house. Islamic Jihad released a statement in Gaza saying Karkur was one of the group's top West Bank commanders and threatened to avenge his death.

In the evening, a team from the Israel Police's elite Yamam counterterror unit raided Bethlehem and killed four Islamic Jihad gunmen. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said the four had constituted the leadership of the terrorist group's armed wing in the city. When the men's bodies were inspected, they were found to be carrying rifles and pistols.

Among the dead was Mahmoud Shehada, 45, the commander of Islamic Jihad in Bethlehem. He had been on Israel's wanted list for eight years, since the eruption of the second intifada, for involvement in a number of deadly terror attacks. Another of the dead was Ahmad Balbul, 48, reported to have been a member of both Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades and the Bethlehem City Council.

UPDATE: Report: IDF Kills Mastermind of Jerusalem Terror Attack - Ali Waked
Palestinian sources say Muhammad Shahade was behind the terror attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem last week in which eight Israeli students were killed. Shahade, a former Fatah member and an Islamic Jihad operative, has been known to have extensive ties with Hizbullah. (Ynet News)

See also Abbas Calls IDF Killing of Islamic Jihad Terrorists a "Barbaric Crime" - Roee Nahmias (Ynet News)

ISLAMIC JIHAD CLAIMS TO HAVE ISRAELI BODY PARTS

Islamic Jihad claims to have Israeli body parts (ELDER OF ZIYON)
The ghoulish terrorists of Islamic Jihad's "Al-Quds Brigades" claim to have body parts of Israeli soldiers: (autotranslated from Palpress)

The Al-Quds Brigades military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, it retains limbs Israeli soldiers detonated an explosive device in them yesterday evening Saturday thorn in the south east of the town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.

The military statement issued by the Palace Agency has received "Palestine Press," a copy of the news this morning, the troops were able late in the evening yesterday, Saturday, from blowing up an explosive anti-personnel mines weighing 10 kilogrammes special Israeli force infiltrated one of the houses in the area east of the town of Rafah thorn .

The statement pointed out that the Israeli forces penetrated enhanced in the region and arrived at the scene after the bombing charge, and affirmed that the elements found parts of the remains of members of the Special Force is holding now.

For his part, the spokesman Abu Ahmad Al-Quds Brigades in a telephone conversation with a local radio, the news and said that the Israeli forces spent most of dawn hours they are searching for the remains of soldiers on the walls and trees, and that the Al-Quds Brigades will offer these parts and body parts in a timely manner after improvement security conditions in the sector.

REST IN PIECES

Airstrike Kills Five Hamas Militants in Gaza - Ali Waked
Five members of Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades, were killed Wednesday after an IDF aircraft fired missiles at a vehicle west of the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, local sources reported. Several people were wounded in the strike. (Ynet News)

Israeli forces strike in Gaza, West Bank (JTA)
Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.  Israel's Air Force bombed a vehicle carrying a Hamas rocket commander and four comrades in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis early Wednesday. All five were killed. Two other gunmen were wounded.

Palestinians said an Islamic Jihad gunman died in an Israeli missile strike near Bureij, in central Gaza. But military officials said there had been no Israeli actions in the area.

In the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, undercover Israeli commandos killed two Al-Aksa Brigades gunmen. There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.

ANOTHER "WORK ACCIDENT?"

6 Killed in Gaza Blast; 40 Hurt (SFChron)
(02-15) 12:08 PST GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- A powerful blast went off at the house of a senior Islamic Jihad activist Friday, killing him and five others, medics and a spokesman for the group said.

At least 40 people were hurt, including nine who were in critical condition, Health Ministry official Moawiya Hassanain said.

Witnesses said the three-story home of Ayman Atallah Fayed was flattened by the blast, and that six nearby homes were badly damaged.

Islamic Jihad claimed Israeli warplanes hit the house in an airstrike, but Hamas police said the cause of the blast was not clear.

Islamic Jihad said Fayed was among the dead, and that the group would carry out reprisal attacks against Israel.

Fayed was a senior member of the Islamic Jihad military wing. Israel routinely targets top militants in airstrikes, but the Israeli military said it had no knowledge of any strike in Bureij.

TERRORIST KNIFES SOLDIER AT CHECKPOINT

Palestinian Terrorist Knifes Soldier at Checkpoint- Yuval Azoulay
An Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded on Tuesday when a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member stabbed him in the back at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Jenin. (Ha'aretz)

ISRAEL THWARTS ISLAMIC JIHAD RAILROAD BOMB PLOT

Israel Thwarts Islamic Jihad Plan to Bomb Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Railroad- Yuval Azoulay (Ha'aretz)
Israeli security forces thwarted an Islamic Jihad cell's plan to place a bomb on the railroad tracks leading from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem near the Palestinian village of Batir, according to information made public Thursday. The members of the cell were captured a month ago near Bethlehem. The investigation revealed that the suspects learned to make bombs via the Internet.

ISRAELS KILLS LOTS OF TERRORISTS

15 Palestinian Militants Killed in Gaza - Amos Harel, Yuval Azoulay, Avi Issacharoff and Jack Khoury
In fighting Tuesday in Gaza, 19 Palestinians were reported killed, 15 of whom were confirmed to be armed militants. One was Hussam Zahar, son of the former Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar, considered to be a firebrand and one of the leaders of the more extremist wing of Hamas, with close ties to its military wing. Israeli security sources emphasized Tuesday that Hussam's killing had not been planned. He was among a group of Hamas gunmen and was killed in an exchange of fire with IDF forces. The Hamas militants killed Tuesday lost their lives in fighting with IDF forces or because they had been targeted while they tried to launch rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli towns.

The IDF's current modus operandi in Gaza is characterized by ground forces raids, limited in both time and scope, and in targeted interceptions of militants in the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, as well as Hamas rocket crews. Senior sources in the defense establishment said Tuesday that this could change if the escalation in rocket attacks continues. The firing of the Katyusha rocket at Ashkelon, the second instance in recent weeks, is evidence the city is permanently within the scope of Hamas. (Ha'aretz)

The IDF entered Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood Tuesday to hunt for cells that fire mortars at Israel, and succeeded in hitting two such cells. When Hamas sent in forces to fight the soldiers, it lost 13 men in the ensuing battle.

Faced with mounting public criticism, Mahmoud Abbas was forced to denounce the "massacre" in Gaza, even though the vast majority of those killed were armed fighters. Abbas is worried about being seen as an Israeli collaborator, while Hamas paints itself as a patriotic organization that fights Israel. (Ha'aretz)

IDF Kills Top Islamic Jihad Leader in West Bank - Ali Waked
Walid Abid, the commander of the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing in the West Bank, was killed Wednesday in Kabatiya, Palestinian sources reported. Abid was responsible for all the organization's activities in the West Bank, including shooting attacks and attempted terror attacks inside Israel. (Ynet News)

See also Head of Islamic Jihad in Samaria Killed
Walid Abid, 46, has been involved in intensive terrorist activity since the 1980s. He was directly responsible for several murderous suicide bombings, among them the planning of the April 2006 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in which eleven civilians were killed and dozens wounded. (IDF Spokesman)

GOT A FEW

IDF Kills Islamic Jihad Rocket Head - Yuval Azoulay and Amos Harel
The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service killed eight Hamas and Islamic Jihad gunmen in three separate incidents in Gaza Thursday. Mohammed Abdallah Abu Murshad, head of rocket and explosive manufacturing for Islamic Jihad in Gaza, was killed together with two other operatives when he was struck by Israel Air Force missiles in central Gaza.

In another incident, an Israel air force aircraft fired at a car containing a large quantity of munitions in Al-Bureij, killing two Islamic Jihad operatives who were on their way to a terror attack. Also Thursday, three Hamas men were killed near Khan Yunis by fire from an IDF helicopter and a unit on the ground after the militants fired an antitank missile at an IDF bulldozer. (Ha'aretz)

See also Islamic Jihad Leader in Nablus Arrested by Undercover Israeli Unit
On Thursday an undercover unit of Israeli forces arrested Samer al-Sa'di, 23, from Jenin, a leader of the al Quds brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad. (IMEMC-PA)

GAZA CHILDREN ENCOURAGED TO KISS TERRORIST CORPSES

The Hate Industry: Gaza Children Encouraged to Kiss Corpses of Terrorist "Martyrs" (Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center)
Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza encourage children to gather around the corpses of terrorist martyrs and kiss them, although this is not rooted in the Muslim tradition.

Indoctrination to hate Israel through the cult of martyr worship begins at an early age among Palestinians in the PA.

Other ways of teaching children hatred and violence toward Israel include encouraging children to wear uniforms and carry weapons and to play at being Palestinian terrorists.

GOT 7 MORE!

Israeli forces kill 7 in Gaza (JTA)
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinian gunmen during operations in the central Gaza Strip.

Backed by helicopter gunships, tanks and troops entered Marazi village early Thursday in search of terrorists operating close to the Gaza-Israel border.

Seven Palestinian gunmen, from Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, were killed in the ensuing clashes. Five Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously.

The PRC fired a rocket across the border, hitting the courtyard of a school in the Israeli town of Sderot. Ten children and eight adults were treated for shock.

VIDEO: TERRORISTS BITE THE DUST

Earlier today, I blogged about Israel's killing several Islamic Jihad terrorists/rocketeers in Gaza. You can now watch it on video.

ISRAEL KILLS ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADERS

IDF Targets Islamic Jihad Terrorists in Gaza - Yuval Azoulay
Early Tuesday, IDF aircraft killed three Islamic Jihad gunmen, including a senior commander, in northern Gaza. In a pair of airstrikes Monday night, IDF aircraft struck two cars in Gaza City, killing six Islamic Jihad militants, including Majed Harazin, the group's overall commander in Gaza and the West Bank and a master rocket maker. Also Tuesday, Islamic Jihad announced that its commander in the northern West Bank had been killed by an undercover IDF unit in the village of Kabatiyeh. (Ha'aretz)

Airstrikes kill 10 Gaza terrorists (JTA)
Israeli airstrikes killed 10 Islamic Jihad terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Signaling a stepped-up offensive against the Palestinian faction that has carried out most of the recent cross-border rocket launches from Gaza, Israel's air force killed 10 Islamic Jihad members in two airstrikes on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

One attack destroyed a car carrying Islamic Jihad's most senior field commander in Gaza. Five of his comrades died with him. In the second strike, four Islamic Jihad men were killed as they left a mosque.

Islamic Jihad responded by vowing to renew suicide bombings in Israel. Israeli security sources dismissed the threat, saying that the absence of recent suicide bombings was a result of effective counter-measures rather than any restraint by Islamic Jihad or other Palestinian terrorist groups.

At least 15 rockets and mortar bombs were fired from Gaza at Israeli targets Tuesday. There were no reports of damage or injuries.

GAZA ROCKETS, MORTAR TARGET ISRAELI GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDDAUGHTER

Grandmother and her granddaughter nearly hit by mortar round (YNet)
A grandmother and her granddaughter, residents of Netiv Ha'asara, were almost hit by a mortar round fired by Palestinians in northern Gaza into Israel Tuesday evening. A total of five mortar rounds and four Qassam rockets were fired from the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday.

The al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing claimed responsibility for the barrage.

The mortar rounds landed in the center of the community of Netiv Ha'asara and caused damage to the windows and the living room of the house where the grandmother and granddaughter were staying.

"We heard the explosion and realized immediately that it was a result of mortar fire," Aviva Poled, a resident, said. She said that it was a miracle that there were no injuries.

The house the two were in suffered a direct hit, Poled said. The pair ran to the nearest bomb shelter when they heard the explosions for fear that more would follow.

Poled also claimed that very few days had gone by without mortars in the last few weeks. She added that there is no warning system to notify of incoming mortar rounds.

This morning, two Qassam rockets were fired into the western Negev. There were no injuries. The al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing claimed responsibility for this incident as well.

PALI TERRORISTS: VOTE HILLARY; KILL RUDY

Terrorists: Vote Hillary; Kill Rudy (FrontPage)
Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is gaining fans, even on the West Bank.

“I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq,” said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian terror group. “President Clinton wanted to give the Palestinians 98 percent of the West Bank territories. I hope Hillary will move a step forward and will give the Palestinians all their rights.”

Senakreh and other top Islamo-fascists want Hillary in the Oval Office. These mass murders also have “gone negative.” They want GOP contender Rudy Giuliani dead.

“We see Hillary and other candidates are competing on who will withdraw from Iraq,” said Abu Jihad of Al Aqsa’s Nablus unit. “This is a moment of glory for the revolutionary movements in the Arab world…”

Al Aqsa’s Nasser Abu Aziz, considered it “very good” that there are “voices like Hillary and others who are now attacking the Iraq invasion.”

Islamic Jihad’s Abu Ayman felt “emboldened” by Clinton’s demands that America retreat from Iraq. He said: “It is clear that it is the resistance operations of the mujahideen that have brought about these calls for withdrawal.”

“All Americans must vote Democrat,” insisted Jihad Jaara, an exiled Al Aqsa agent who commanded 2002’s siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.

PALI JEWISH CONVERT CONVICTED OF AIDING TERRORIST BROTHER

Haifa resident convicted of planning to transfer explosives to Islamic Jihad (YNet)
The Haifa District Court convicted a 39-year-old city resident of conspiring to assist the enemy, contacting a foreign agent and additional security offenses. The man, a Palestinian who converted to Judaism and changed his name to Assaf Ben-David, was convicted of planning to purchase explosives for his brother, an Islamic Jihad member wanted by the IDF. The brother was killed by IDF fire before the deal came through.

ISLAMIC JIHAD: NO PEACE FOR ISRAEL

Islamic Jihad: No Peace for Israelis - Steven Gutkin
Abu Hamza is constantly on the run from Israel. His hideout today is a barren room with a computer hooked up to the Internet, which the Islamic Jihad commander said is used to plan rocket attacks on southern Israel. He pledged to keep up the violence. "We must create a balance of terror with the enemy," he said. The rockets that Islamic Jihad fires into Israel almost daily serve as constant reminders that renewed talk of Mideast peace remains a distant dream in Gaza. Thousands of rockets fired over the past seven years have killed 12 Israelis, wounded dozens and disrupted life for thousands.

Islamic Jihad, a virulently anti-Israel group backed by Iran and Syria, has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and has about 2,000 militants armed with automatic rifles, grenades and anti-tank weapons. It operates independently of the much larger Hamas, whose tolerance and sometimes encouragement of rocket attacks have increased Gaza's isolation. "Resistance must continue until we uproot the occupation from all the land of Palestine...from the sea to the river," said Abu Hamza, outlining Islamic Jihad's position that a future Palestinian state must replace Israel, not live alongside it. He said that Palestinian rocket fire forced Israel out of Gaza in 2005 and that he expected the same result in southern Israeli towns like Sderot and Ashkelon.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Gaza's Al Azhar University, said there is no doubt Syria and Iran are involved. "There are outsiders giving orders from outside the Gaza Strip, whether from Damascus or Tehran, for their own reasons," Abusada said. "They (Gaza militants) are doing this because they're getting paid for it." (AP/Washington Post)

EGYPT LETS PALI TERRORISTS ENTER GAZA

Egypt allows re-entry of thirty Palestinians to Gaza (Ma'an)
Gaza – Ma'an – The Egyptian authorities on Tuesday morning permitted the entry of around thirty Palestinians into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing, between Egypt and Gaza.

The majority of returning Palestinians were members of the Islamic Jihad movement.

Sources from Islamic Jihad reported that the majority were members of the military wing of the movement, the Al-Quds Brigades, and one was a Hamas loyalist.

The combatants were abroad for medical treatment after being injured during the second intifada.

Egypt also permitted the re-entry of eighty-seven Hamas and Fatah affiliates last week.