Defense Minister Moshe Arens has expressed serious concern over the security situation on Israel’s northern border, where it maintains a 50-mile-long buffer zone against incursions from southern Lebanon.
Conditions have worsened in recent months and there is no guarantee they will improve, even as Arab-Israeli peace talks continue, he told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee last week.
Arens attributed the deteriorating situation to the growing strength of Hezbollah, the Shi’ite fundamentalist guerrilla group in southern Lebanon which, he said, has reached a high level of technological proficiency.
According to Arens, Hezbollah, which means “Party of God,” gets its advice and instructions from Iran. It aims to derail the current peace talks, he said.
His counsel tallies with information reported this fall in Time magazine, which said Hezbollah vowed to fight Israel till the end, and an op-ed piece by David Halevy, co-author of “Inside the PLO,” published last Friday in The New York Times.
According to Halevy, a secret deal was struck in September in Lebanon by high-ranking Iranian officials and leaders of Hezbollah.
In October, Teheran gave $86 million to Hezbollah to renew attacks on Israeli and U.S. targets in the Middle East, he said. Among the ensuing attacks was a hit in southern Lebanon that resulted in the death of six Israeli soldiers.
Serious attacks are slated to begin in early 1992, according to Halevy.
MORE ATTACKS IN TERRITORIES
Arens, in his Knesset report, also said attacks could be expected from extremist secular groups active in the administered territories, including those headed by George Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh.
Yasir Arafat’s Al Fatah, the largest group within the Palestine Liberation Organization, is playing a double role, the Israeli defense minister said. It claims to support the peace process but at the same time it mounts attack, he said.
Arens said intifada-related security incidents are declining because of a general weariness among the Palestinians and the tougher, more sophisticated methods introduced by the Israel Defense Force under Gen. Matan Vilnai, commander of the central sector, which includes the West Bank.
The committee members were briefed by a senior IDF officer who provided a statistical overview of the intifada.
The Palestinian uprising peaked in 1988, when there were 2,380 security incidents in the territories and six Jews were killed.
In 1989, the number of incidents dropped to 1,463, with four Jewish fatalities. In 1990, incidents declined to 1,299 and one Jew was killed.
But in 1991, the number of incidents rose again to 1,709. There was also an increase in the use of firearms and explosives. There were 121 shooting incidents this year, 124 terrorist explosions and 88 hand grenade attacks, the IDF officer reported.
With respect to Palestinian casualties, the officer said the number of Arabs killed by fellow Arabs now substantially exceeds fatalities inflicted by the security forces.
This year, 74 Arabs were killed by security forces, compared to 238 killed by other Arabs.
According to the statistics provided by the IDF, that has been the trend over the last three years.
Security forces accounted for 271 Arab fatalities in 1988, while 58 Arabs died at the hands of other Arabs.
In 1989, security forces killed 270 Arabs, while the number killed by fellow Arabs increased to 110.
In 1990, security forces killed 93 Arabs, while other Arabs murdered 212 of their brethren.
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