Much of southern Israel closed to civilian traffic
Pastor Dale Morgan
Much of southern Israel closed to civilian traffic*
US and Israeli bases on high alert for Hamas incursions from Sinai
January 26, 2008, 10:53 AM (GMT+02:00)
Most highways of the southern Negev - which adjoins the Egyptian Sinai
frontier - were ordered shut to civilian traffic early Saturday, Jan.
26, until further notice. This is Israel's most extensive terror alert
ever.
Military sources report. The big Israeli and
American air and military bases in the region are on high terror alert
and officers' families are being removed to central Israel, following
intelligence warnings that Hamas, Jihad Islami and al Qaeda are
preparing to launch suicide operations across the porous Egyptian
border from N. Sinai.
Israeli military forces have spread out across the southern region,
checkpoints set up on the highways, lookout positions posted, and
helicopters and drones are on constant surveillance.
Sources in the south report that Eilat, Israel's
southernmost town and Red Sea port is not entirely cut off; the
eastern Highway 90 is open to traffic although Highway 10 which
follows the Egyptian Sinai frontier is closed.
So too are 221 and 222 and parts of Routes 40 and 12. Israeli units
have been deployed to block off to terrorist access to the southern
towns of Eilat, Mitzpeh Ramon, Kfar Yeruham, Beersheba, Arad and the
villages and military installations located in the Negev and Aravah
regions. Popular tourist nature reserves and beauty spots are closed.
The latest intelligence input speaks of an ingathering in Sinai of al
Qaeda cells from Egypt and other parts of the Middle East. They are
heading for the Egyptian-Israel frontier, which Egyptian border forces
have abandoned to focus on the anarchy on the Gaza-Egyptian border
Hamas generated by knocking down the border wall. One-third of Gaza's
1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants has flooded into N. Sinai in a
disorderly exodus.
Counter-terror sources disclose an ominous symptom: Al
Qaeda has appointed an "emir" for the Gaza Strip, the customary
military commander appointed when the jihadist group goes into
operational mode.