Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06TELAVIV596
2006-02-08 14:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:  

GOI RESPONDS TO NEW PATTERN OF CROSS-BORDER

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 000596 

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/IPA, NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2016
TAGS: IS EG PGOV PREL JO PINR PREF PBTS SNAR KCRM GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS GOI EXTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: GOI RESPONDS TO NEW PATTERN OF CROSS-BORDER
INCURSIONS

REF: A. A) 2005 TEL AVIV 06876

B. B) 2005 TEL AVIV 06877

C. C) CAIRO 603

Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b,d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TEL AVIV 000596

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/IPA, NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2016
TAGS: IS EG PGOV PREL JO PINR PREF PBTS SNAR KCRM GOI INTERNAL ISRAELI PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS GOI EXTERNAL ISRAELI SOCIETY
SUBJECT: GOI RESPONDS TO NEW PATTERN OF CROSS-BORDER
INCURSIONS

REF: A. A) 2005 TEL AVIV 06876

B. B) 2005 TEL AVIV 06877

C. C) CAIRO 603

Classified By: Ambassador Richard H. Jones for reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Israeli National Police (INP) Colonel
Avshalom Peled told G-TIP Reports Officer Gayatri Patel
January 11 and poloff in subsequent phone conversations that
his Ramon Border Police Brigade, which guards Israel's
southern border with Egypt, has captured 85 Palestinians from
the Gaza Strip attempting to enter Israel illegally through
its border with Egypt since disengagement. Peled stressed
that his brigade, which first deployed in June 2003, did not
observe any attempted incursions by Gazans prior to
disengagement. Peled also said that the GOI had previously
allocated insufficient manpower and resources to guard its
southern borders with both Egypt and Jordan, while adding
that the government in January allocated significantly more
personnel to address this deficiency. At any given moment,
Peled reported, 50 Border Police currently protect the
208-kilometer border between Israel and Egypt, what he termed
the main route for trafficking persons into Israel. Peled
admitted that his brigade cannot prevent smuggling from Egypt
of terrorists, firearms, explosives, women, laborers, drugs,
tobacco, or refugees. In addition, Peled described the
Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers who guard Israel's
southern border with Jordan between the Gulf of Aqaba and
Ne'ot Hakikar near the Dead Sea as "not effective," alleging
that "most of the heroin in Israel enters there." END
SUMMARY.

--------------
FIRST PALESTINIAN INCURSIONS
--------------


2. (C) Ramon Border Brigade Commander Avshalom Peled said

that his brigade has captured 85 Palestinians from the Gaza
Strip attempting to enter Israel illegally through its border
with Egypt since disegagement in September 2005. Peled
stressed that his brigade, which first deployed in June 2003,
did not observe any attempted incursions by Gazans prior to
disengagement. He said Palestinian "and foreign terrorists"
increasingly seek to perform a "u-shaped movement" from Gaza
south into Egypt, east across the Sinai desert, north through
the Israel-Egypt border, and ultimately into the West Bank
(reftels A and B). During a February 3 discussion with the
Ambassador, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asserted that this
smuggling route is of increasing concern to Israel, that the
Egyptians do not seem to be interested in combating it, and
that the GOI would ask for funds from the USG to enhance
security, in light of the Hamas victory. While Peled did not
offer evidence of any foreign terrorists having actually used
the route, he noted that Egyptian border guard forces are
currently embroiled in combat against "jihadists" in the
Sinai only 30 kilometers from the border with Israel.


3. (C) Peled said that construction of the security fence
separating the West Bank from Israel has created a sense of
urgency among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who now realize
that the fence, upon its completion, will prevent them from
entering the West Bank illicitly through Israel. The
southern border has consequently experienced a rise in the
number of attempted incursions by Palestinians from the Gaza
Strip who seek to enter the West Bank while still possible.
Peled predicted a further increase in these attempts during

2006.

-------------- --------------
TRAFFICKING PEOPLE ACROSS THE ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER
-------------- --------------


4. (C) Peled reported that in 2005 his brigade caught 137
people being smuggled across the border, 45 of whom were
women. He noted that this number represents an increase
since 2004, when his brigade caught 104 people, and that he
suspects the number apprehended reflects only a small
proportion of the actual number of trafficked persons. "Many
more were not caught," Peled admitted. He said his brigade
employs an interrogator to question people caught crossing
the border illegally and to commence, when appropriate,
criminal investigations. The INP has trained the
interrogator, Peled asserted, to identify victims of
trafficking. Peled said he has just one interrogator to
serve all four companies -- three Border Police and one IDF
-- under his command. Although Peled reported that the INP
has provided a "green light" to hire a second interrogator,
he could not provide an estimate as to when this interrogator
will join the brigade.


5. (C) Peled added that the entire brigade has received
clear instructions to send all women, whether or not the
interrogator believes they were trafficked, to the
Immigration Authority. Officials at the Immigration
Authority, he explained, have the power to decide whether to
pass women determined to be trafficking victims to the care
of the shelter for trafficked women. Peled mentioned that
some of the traffickers smuggle people into Israel for
prostitution, while others smuggle them in for labor.


6. (C) Peled emphasized that the trafficked women his
brigade has caught often report abuse along the trafficking
route by Bedouin and Egyptian smugglers. Peled alleged that
some women have been killed and buried in the desert, but
offered no specifics. In a separate meeting January 13 with
poloff and Patel, INP Inspector Eli Kaplan confirmed reports
of abuse. Kaplan said he conducted a "sting" operation at
the border, in which he posed as an Israeli trafficker
seeking women from the former Soviet Union. When the women
arrived, they had been severely bruised and malnourished.

-------------- --------------
DEPLOYMENT AND RESOURCES AT THE ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER
-------------- --------------


7. (C) Peled explained that the Border Police, also called
the border guards, mainly work under the day-to-day command
of the six INP districts (southern, central, Tel Aviv,
Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and northern). Two Border
Police brigades within the INP work under IDF operational
command -- one of these brigades works in Judea and Samaria,
and one at the southern border with Egypt (Peled's Ramon
brigade). The head of the IDF's southern command provides
the Ramon brigade its overall operational guidance. Peled
said his brigade includes three companies of border guards,
totaling 286 personnel, and one company from the Israeli
Defense Forces (IDF),totaling 80 soldiers. These totals
include officers and support personnel. Peled has deployed
his border guard companies at Nitzana Base, near the Gaza
Strip and the town of Nitzana; Har Harif Base, in the center
of the border line near Mount Harif; and Shikma Base, just
northwest of Eilat. He has stationed his army company at
Uzia Base, located north of Eilat near Mount Uziyahu.


8. (C) Peled admitted that his brigade, first deployed in
June 2003, has insufficient manpower and resources to prevent
smugglers from trafficking terrorists, firearms, explosives,
women, laborers, drugs, tobacco, and refugees from Egypt into
Israel. Currently, at any one moment, Peled reported, 50
border guards protect a desert border of 208 kilometers.


9. (C) Peled said his brigade relies heavily on visual
intelligence drawn from border guards, special cameras, and
ground surveillance radars. He emphasized, however, that his
brigade needs more cameras and radars. Peled's brigade
borrows planes and helicopters for special operations from
the Israeli Air Force or the Police Air Force. In addition,
Peled said, his brigade employs Bedouin trackers to pursue
smugglers in the desert. In 2005, Peled reported, the Ramon
brigade developed a new strategy to address the increase in
cross-border smuggling. The strategy requires the unit to
deploy more forces, use more surveillance devices, develop
better aerial surveillance, utilize sniffer dogs, improve
cooperation with the Egyptians, and begin collaborating with
the tax authorities to punish Israeli citizens who purchase
smuggled goods.

--------------
REINFORCEMENTS PLANNED FOR THE SOUTH
--------------


10. (C) Despite his persistent complaints about lack of
resources, Peled expressed optimism about "major changes"
that he claimed are coming soon. He ascribed these changes
to disengagement, saying that the IDF will now redeploy to
the southern border soldiers who formerly served in the Gaza
Strip. Peled claimed, however, that soldiers serve less
effectively as border guards than do policemen, because IDF
companies receive less professional training for border
protection than do their police counterparts, and often the
army units comprise many young and inexperienced conscripts.
Use of these units appeals to policy makers, Peled added,
because they cost the government less money than do
professional Border Police.


11. (C) DAO contacts have reported that the IDF has already
redeployed an army brigade that previously served in the Gaza
Strip to support the Ramon brigade. Peled subsequently
confirmed that an IDF Colonel who shares his name (Avi Peled)
moved January 2 to the border with his regional army brigade,
comprising approximately 700 people. This army brigade now
covers the area between Ezuz and the Gaza Strip, while the
Ramon brigade guards the area from Ezuz south to Eilat.
Peled reported that by February 16 another army brigade will
deploy to reinforce the Ramon brigade along the whole border
between Har Harif and Eilat.


12. (U) Note: The Israeli Government Press Office reported
that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Israel-Egypt
border November 29 along with senior members of his cabinet.
"There is no difference between criminal and security
infiltrations," Sharon announced. Sharon described the GOI's
attempt to improve border protection as an "urgent and
immediate mission." End note.

--------------
THE SOUTHERN ISRAEL-JORDAN BORDER
--------------


13. (C) Commander Peled explained that the IDF currently
deploys a battalion of approximately 300 soldiers to protect
Israel's southern border with Jordan between the Gulf of
Aqaba and Ne'ot Hakikar. "I can say for sure the soldiers
are not effective," Peled said. "They don't catch anything
over there," he claimed. "It's a less active border, but
there is infiltration there, especially hard drugs like
heroin. Most of the heroin in Israel enters there." Peled
said he does not know the extent to which terrorists or
trafficked persons enter through the southern border with
Jordan. (Note: Embassy Amman reports that it hears from both
Israelis and Jordanians that the GOI is generally content
with the security cooperation they receive from the GOJ along
the Israel-Jordan border. End note.)


14. (C) Peled said that the failure to adequately guard the
southern Jordanian border has led the police to instruct him
to write a staff paper explaining how to build the same sort
of protection on the southern Jordan-Israel border that he
has developed for the Egypt-Israel border. Peled said that
by the end of 2006, he will take over command of the southern
Jordan-Israel border, and he hopes to strengthen the police
component of the border's protection. Peled said he also
expects the IDF to augment the border's forces with an army
brigade from the Gaza Strip, which he explained contains more
soldiers and resources than does a police brigade; he hopes
to have at least 1,000 soldiers assigned to guard the border
under his command.

--------------
THE BEDOUIN SMUGGLERS
--------------


15. (C) Bedouin tribes do not recognize the Israel-Egypt
border, Peled explained, since they believe it was
artificially imposed on their pre-existing communities, which
straddle the current line. Peled said the Bedouin tribes
have clearly delineated their areas of operation on the
Egyptian side of the border, to the extent that some leaders
tax rival smugglers who traverse their territory. Smuggling
is the only source of income for some Bedouin communities,
Peled reported. Since the border stretches along 208
kilometers of desert, Peled said, smugglers consider each
trip to be "low risk."


16. (C) Usually two to ten smugglers are operating at any
time, Peled said, often on foot or on camel, though they also
sometimes use vehicles, including a lead vehicle, an
operations vehicle, a rescue vehicle, and a closing vehicle.
They always employ forward observation, Peled said, usually
with radio contact and even command posts. He also said they
use tactical diversions to distract mobile units of border
guards.

--------------
THE EGYPTIANS
--------------


17. (C) According to the 1978 Camp David accords and the
1979 Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, Egypt may deploy
only civilian police units in the eastern Sinai near the
Egyptian border with Israel. Israel and Egypt signed a
memorandum of understanding in fall 2005 permitting
deployment of 750 new Egyptian Border Guard Forces along the
Gaza-Egypt border to augment the lightly-armed police troops
called for in the peace treaty. Peled complained that the
Egyptian police are ineffective, alleging that they sometimes
accept bribes from smugglers or traffickers. According to
Peled, the Israelis receive no cooperation whatsoever from
the Egyptians to prevent smuggling. (Note: Embassy Cairo
reports that the GOE argues that Israel refuses to entertain
Egypt's request to further supplement its Border Guard Forces
along the Egyt-Gaza border with another batallion in order to
adequately address the smuggling challenge. The GOE
contends, according to Embassy Cairo, that its success rate
in deterring smuggling rose dramatically since its BGF
deployment along the Gaza-Egypt border, per LTG Dayton's
discussions with Minister of Defense Tantawi and DMI Mowafi
in Cairo last week (reftel C). End note.)

********************************************* ********************
Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv

You can also access this site through the State Department's
Classified SIPRNET website.
********************************************* ********************
JONES