Intifada, killing 22 Israelis and one Thai national, and injuring scores more. The maximum range of the latest model is 10km, and when fired from the northern boundary of the Gaza Strip, the rockets can reach the southern Israeli city of Sderot, and also as far north as Ashkelon. Other groups later developed similar rockets, with similar capabilities, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds rocket, which was estimated by Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre to have been fired, in 2007, 12% more than Qassams. Gaza is well out of the


reach of any airport and the flight paths of aircraft are at high altitude over


t e r r i t o r y ; h i g h e r t h e


would not be able carry out such from the West will be very withdraw


t o attacks Bank, it


unlikely to from the territory and allow an i n d e p e n d e n t state to form. Israeli officials have said that at the very least a rocket defence system would be a pre-requisite for a two state


solution. In the wider Arab-Israeli (between Lebanon and Syria on the one hand, and Israel on the other) conflict in the past


this t h a n range of Palestinian-


made artillery rockets. This is not the case with


the other part of the Palestinian Territories: the West Bank. This has a mountain ridge


Te Qsa I h asm II


that rises up to 3,000 feet higher than Israel’s main aviation hub – Ben


Gurion International Airport. The airport and flight path are potentially vulnerable from rocket attacks launched from the West Bank. There have been several attempts to hit Israel from the West Bank: in 2005 a rocket was fired from Jenin, but didn’t reach Israel; in July 2006 Fatah’s militant wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said it had the ability to produce rockets in the northern West Bank and that Ben Gurion Airport would eventually be a target; in February 2010 Palestinian Authority security forces arrested a Hamas cell preparing to fire a Qassam near Ramallah and in June a senior Hamas official called on West Bank residents to fire rockets into Israel. To date, there have been no successful rocket attacks from the West Bank. This issue raises the opposite question


to the one discussed in this article; what is the impact of aviation security on the Arab-Israeli conflict? Because until Israel has assurance that militant groups


22


ten years, Israel has suffered Katyusha rocket attacks from Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hizbullah. During the 2006 Lebanon war, between Hizbullah and Israel, the group fired around 4,000 rockets at Israel. 95% were Syrian-made Katyusha’s with a 30km range. The majority of airports and flight paths are beyond this range but one attack in July 2006 reached as far south as Haifa, killing several civilians. Haifa has a domestic airport, but that was not hit. Hizbullah also possesses a small arsenal of Fajr rockets, which have a range of 45-75km. A number of these were fired into Israel during the war. Intelligence reports have said that the group also possesses surface to air missiles (SAM), including from Syria an advanced SA-8 anti-aircraft missile, which could challenge Israeli air force reconnaissance flights over Lebanon. Since the war there have been only a handful of rocket attacks from Lebanon. In 2009 Hizbullah said it has a new weapon and sources suspect this may be a SAM developed in Iran. Rockets have also been fired at Israel’s


Red Sea resort city Eilat. In 2005, a rocket fired from across the border in Aqaba, Jordan landed near the airport. An al-Qaeda affiliated group in Syria and Egypt claimed responsibility. And, on 2 August this year, five rockets were fired in the direction of Eilat (according to the IDF, at the time this issue of ASI was going to press, from the Sinai peninsular) but missed their intended target; at least one of the Grad missiles actually landed in Aqaba (in Jordan) killing a 40-year-old man and injuring five others.


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Impact of the conflict on aviation security in the past 10 years and countermeasures Although there have been no actual successful attacks against aviation in relation to the Arab-Israeli conflict in recent years, the past decade has not been without incidents or threats related to this. At the start of the 2nd Intifada, on 8


October 2000, the Palestinian Resistance Committees attacked a bus transporting Israel Airports Authority workers near the Rafah crossing, injuring eight of them. In 2001, Gaza International Airport (now Yassir Arafat International Airport) located in Rafah was closed by the Israelis citing security concerns as a result of the Intifada. The Israeli Defence Forces destroyed the control tower, radar station and runway. Israel also closed its own Jerusalem


Atarot Airport – used for only a small number of domestic flights - in 2001, as its runway was being frequently stoned by Palestinians in neighbouring West Bank areas. On 17 November 2002, an Israeli


Arab, reportedly armed with a pocket knife, attempted to hijack an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul. He attempted to access the flight deck in order to fly the aircraft back to Israel and crash it into a building. He was apprehended by on-board guards and later denied he had attempted to attack the flight. Following the 28 November 2002


Mombasa shoot-down attempt of an Arkia Israel Airlines flight, and subsequent intelligence reports (in 2003, Thai authorities intercepted a plot by the Jemmah Islamiyya group to down an El Al jet taking off or landing from Bangkok International Airport and in 2005, Swiss authorities foiled a similar plot by a North African cell of al-Qaeda to down an El Al jet with a rocket over Geneva) in 2004, Israel implemented the Flight Guard aircraft defence system on some of the craft of its national carrier El Al that fly to high- risk destinations. However, several European countries banned any craft with Flight Guard installed from their airspace due to fire safety hazard concerns as the system uses flares, as did the the US Federal Aviation


August 2010 Aviationsecurityinternational


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