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European Marksmen-for-Hire in Gaza

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

September 8, 2004, 12:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

The pair talked as they walked, indicating sandbanks until they reached a point 500 meters from his perch atop an IDF position. They then turned back and disappeared behind Palestinian houses.

M. decided this break in Palestinian routine was worth reporting to his superior officer, which he did and put the incident out of his mind.

Around 90 minutes later, he stood up to move to another part of the roof. His right shoulder had been visible over the parapet no more than three or four seconds when he was knocked over by a gunshot before he had time to fire. Another soldier on the roof shot back at once, but the sniper was gone.

In the hospital, M was shown the bullet extracted from his shoulder. It came from an M16 automatic rifle and had been fired from a distance of 500 meters, exactly the point where the pair had turned back from the sandbank opposite M.’s rooftop sights. His comrade told him he had caught a glimpse of the shooter he missed and was sure he was European. “A sniper fast enough to lock onto my shoulder, shoot and disappear – all in the space of a three or four seconds must be a top-line professional marksman,” said M.

His account has been repeated by members of other units serving in the Rafah and Khan Younes sectors of the southern Gaza Strip. They swear they have come across snipers they are sure are not Palestinian but foreigners from northern parts of the world.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that in 2003, the IDF confirmed four instances of “foreign” snipers operating in Palestinian ranks. By September, 5 incidents had been registered this year. In one, an Israel soldier died of a direct shot to the head; four were injured in Operation Rainbow in Rafah earlier this year and two more recently. Soldiers serving in the southern sector claim the number of casualties from European snipers is much higher and are asking questions. Their officers reply that the matter is extremely sensitive but urge them to take precautions on the assumption that professional marksmen are in the vicinity.

Some troops say they have heard the special bang peculiar to the Russian-made SVD sharpshooter’s rifle, of the type captured aboard the Karin-A Palestinian smugglers’ ship and found during Operation Rainbow. The troops who have come up against these foreigners note their exceptional speed. They fire a single round and duck out of sight, leaving a Palestinian to take over their firing position.

This description, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, fits mercenary marksmen. By firing once and moving out, they save themselves from Israeli sniper reprisals. As one Israeli officer put it, “After all they’re in it for the money, not to get killed.” For that reason too, they never stay long in the Gaza Strip – a couple of days and they are gone back across the border into Egypt. Some are thought to enter through the Palestinian gunrunning tunnels from Sinai to Rafah and leave by the same route. Others may be smuggled in from Sinai to southern Israel in groups of illegal workers and prostitutes. The smugglers are said to receive extra-high pay, as much as $1,000, for bringing a foreign marksman in and out of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian terrorist chiefs have been importing marksmen for hire to hit Israeli troops for two or more years. In March 2002, the London Daily Telegraph, known for its good British MoD and intelligence sources, reported a request from the Israeli Mossad to the British MI6 to find out if an IRA sharpshooter had not been responsible for the 7 Israeli troop deaths at the Wadi Harmiya checkpoint. Israeli tests had shown that the planning of the ambush, the type of weapons used, the way the firefight was managed and, even more tellingly, the fact that the weapons left behind were not the ones used, were typical of an assailant thoroughly conversant with IRA tactics.

One month later, when the Moshav Adura was stormed by Palestinian gunmen, Israeli civilians who had seen the terrorists at close quarters reported that among the Palestinians was a European.

What Non-Palestinian Hand Carried out Adora Attack?

DEBKAfile Military Sources Ask

April 27, 2002, 4:02 PM (GMT+02:00)

Saturday morning, April 27, two terrorists burst into the Jewish settlement of Adora, west of Hebron on the West Bank, shooting their way into one home after another. They killed four Israeli civilians, two of them young children, and wounded 13, 7 seriously.

Two hours later, Ms Anat Harari, 41, waiting at Barzilai hospital, Ashkelon, for surgery on the bullet wounds that smashed her arm and shoulder, gave a calm yet strange account of her experience.

From behind the window of her home, she saw a young man in Israeli military fatigues and flak jacket approaching with an M-16 rifle. He looked just like an Israeli soldier. When he was only a meter and a half away, he raised his rifle and quite deliberately began shooting into the window at which she was standing. He then went round the house, firing through more windows with the same slow deliberation. Ms Harari was absolutely sure of his light skin and non-Arab appearance.

A neighbor, a policeman from the Israeli station in Hebron, came running out when he heard the gunfire. He was so certain the two gunmen he found were Israelis that he addressed them in Hebrew. Only when they shot him did he realize they were terrorists.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add these fresh accounts to the evidence gleaned from certain terrorist strikes in the last two months – starting with the Kharmiyeh roadblock attack north of Ramallah in early March, in which 10 Israelis were killed. The shadow of an active, experienced non-Palestinian presence has been discerned at work in subsequent Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets.

Although there are theories about this alien identity, Israeli military chiefs do not know for sure who they are. An exhaustive investigation following the Kharmiyeh attack defined the three expert marksmen who executed the deadly assault as professional enough to wipe out every clue to their identity before disappearing without trace. The meager clues discovered do not point to Palestinian hit men.

In certain subsequent shooting and bombing attacks in other places, the execution was Palestinian, but not the way they were organized, the types of explosives and other features.

Ms Harari is the first close-up eyewitness to testify to a non-Palestinian presence in the Palestinian terror machine.

Israel’s military and security authorities prefer to keep the issue low-key so as not to frighten the public. They are also reluctant to tip their hand. Two of the possibilities floated are Hizballah and al Qaeda. Another is European mercenaries – underworld contract killers, or European-trained commandos. Some weeks ago, The London Daily Telegraph reported a request from the Israeli Mossad to the British MI6 to find out if one of the marksmen at Wadi Kharmiyeh was an Irish Republican Army operative. The question was put in light of the tactics employed in the assault, including farsighted intelligence and efficient escapes routes. The killers also had the foresight to strew at the scene misleading evidence of weapons - other than those actually employed.

This calculated pre-planning is a far cry from slipshod, hotheaded Palestinian tactics.

Saturday’s Adora raid was carried out coolly and in broad daylight, the settlement chosen is small and isolated, surrounded only by a plain mesh fence with no Israeli military nearby and the killers made a clean escape - leaving only the imprint of professional killers at work.