Shin Bet chief says 1,000 terrorists killed in Gaza since 2005
Internal security minister, Shin Bet chief brief cabinet ministers on security forces' operations in Strip over past two years; say about 5% of 20,000 Gaza militants eliminated
Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin said Sunday that IDF and Shin Bet forces had killed roughly 1,000 terrorists in various operations in Gaza in the past two years. Diskin spoke at the cabinet's weekly security briefing.
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter, also present at the briefing, said "about five percent of the militants in the Gaza Strip were killed," adding that their number is estimated at some 20,000.
Dichter called on the government to "change the method of action so that the attrition warfare against Sderot and the Gaza vicinity communities will cease."
He said the Israeli military targets terrorists while the Palestinians target civilians: "This a-symmetry is part of the attrition – all you have to do is look at the fact the 3,000 of Sderot's residents have left the city."
Dichter, who also spoke at the Kadima meeting prior to that of the cabinet's, said any decision made regarding the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should be discussed by the party before being finalized.
"We cannot finalize anything before the first stage of the Road Map is implemented," he said. "Before we do anything, we have to insist the Palestinians prove they can enforce the law."
Earlier Prime Minister Ehud Olmert briefed the ministers about his meeting with US President George W. Bush during his Mideast visit, and told cabinet that despite the recently published US Intelligence report, Iran is – and will continue to be – an immediate threat.
"We have to make sure this threat is eliminated, and the US is very much aware of that," he said.
Bush, added Olmert, stressed that "the US is committed to the fact that no Israeli-Palestinian agreement can come into effect before the Road Map is fully implemented – especially when is comes to the safety and security of Israel."
