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PA admits Jewish towns turned into 'training camps'

Follows WND story former Gaza capital now Hamas terror zone
Posted: November 25, 2005
8:19 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM - The Palestinian Authority admitted in an official document published that today parts of Gush Katif, the former Jewish communities of Gaza, are now "training camps" for terror groups.

In an exclusive story last week, WND reported Hamas has turned Neve Dekalim, the former capital of Gush Katif, into a "martyrs training camp," and has used the territory to fire rockets into Israel.

Palestinian Interior Minister Nasser Yousef yesterday toured Gaza's former Jewish communities and detailed a PA plan to bring security to the area. Since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in August, the land that comprised Gush Katif has been the scene of regular internal Palestinian clashes.

An official dossier of Yousef's schedule released today by the Interior Ministry states, "The Minister Nasser Yousef toured the newly liberated areas of Gaza, parts of which are used by the Palestinian groups as training camps."

As WND reported, in what some expelled Jewish residents of the area called the "ultimate insult," Hamas leaders said they turned Neve Dekalim into a "martyr training camp" and have used the territory to launch rockets into Israel.

Earlier this month officials placed barbed wire around Neve Dekalim, as well as signs posted in Arabic which describe the neighborhood as a "closed military zone."

Senior Hamas sources told WND the group transformed Dekalim into a "military training camp for martyrs," boasting that several Qassam rockets have been fired from the former Jewish capital into nearby Israeli Negev towns.

Hamas has taken credit for Israel's Gaza withdrawal and has become a formidable force in the area. It swept local municipal elections, and analysts expect the terror group to do well in upcoming Palestinian parliamentary elections.

Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas chief in Gaza, told WND in an exclusive interview last month "that our martyr operations caused Israel to withdraw from Gaza is the truth and the reality. ... [Martyr operations] are the option that the great majority of our people, except a minority of opportunistic people, is deeply convinced is the best choice because any negotiation with the occupiers will be helpless and will not bring back to the Palestinians any of their rights and it will not free their lands."

Al-Zahar warned Hamas would launch terror attacks to drive Israel from the West Bank and ultimately from the entire Jewish state.

Since the Gaza withdrawal, more than 100 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israeli Negev towns. Israel says Palestinian groups are transferring rocket technology and heavy weaponry to Judea and Samaria.

Neve Dekalim was the largest town in Gaza's Gush Katif slate of Jewish communities. Prior to Israel's withdrawal, the neighborhood regularly was bustling with Jewish residents dining, shopping and going to work. It contained Katif's industrial zone, government buildings and some of the largest synagogues and stores in the area. Housing was tight, with a total of 467 units in the neighborhood filled by Jewish families who moved in from throughout Israel and across the world.

WND's story last week of a Hamas terror camp in their former city saddened Jewish residents who had been expelled from the area.

Dror Venunu, former director of the Gush Katif Development Fund and a Dekalim resident, told WND, "This is the ultimate insult. I didn't have one illusion the Palestinians would use our town to build something good. We warned about this to the Israeli population, that giving Gush Katif will reward all the terror organizations. Still, to hear where my home once stood is now a Hamas terror camp is very difficult and sickening. This is like making a holy place into total filth."

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Rachel Sapperstein, a former Dekalim community leader, told WND, "I had not expected anything less from the Palestinians. I would have assumed they would take our beautiful homes, synagogues and schools and turn them into centers for terror."

Sapperstein said prior to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza she was in the planning stages for a new girls' dormitory to be constructed in Neve Dekalim in the memory of the first Gush Katif resident killed in a terror attack.

"I thank God I didn't build that dormitory," Sapperstein said, "because my heart would shatter if I knew that from it would come a Hamas training camp."

P.A. admits, Jewish towns turned into 'training camps'  (http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47587)