An IDF reserve unit seized eight Kassam-2 rockets, warheads, and launchers on a truck departing from the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday. The rockets were destined for Hamas activists in the Jenin refugee camp and were most likely going to be deployed against Afula and other Israeli communities in the Jezreel Valley, military sources said.

The capture marked the first time Israel has confirmed presence of such rockets in the West Bank. Hamas has previously deployed and fired Kassam rockets in the Gaza Strip, but until now the IDF had only suspected the organization of manufacturing them in the West Bank.

The Kassam-2 was developed by Hamas, with technology it received from Iran, according to ynet. According to the IDF, the 1.2-meter (5 feet) long missile has a range of 10-12 kilometers (6-7 miles) and can carry a 4-6 kilogram (8.8-13.2 pound) warhead, capable of inflicting serious damage. The army believes that Kassam-2 rockets have already been smuggled into Tulkarm and Kalkilya, which would put major Israeli cities such as Hadera and Kfar Saba in striking distance. Hamas reportedly conducted a successful test launch of the rocket several weeks ago near Nablus.

"For some time, we have been witness to increasing attempts by Hamas and other groups, apparently with backing from the Palestinian Authority, to bring Kassam rockets to Jenin, Tulkarm, and Kalkilya to directly threaten Israeli population centers," IDF Head of Command in Judea and Samaria Brig.-Gen. Gershon Yitzhak said at a press conference held to display the captured missiles. "If this warhead hit a crowded civilian area, it would cause many casualties."

IDF well-prepared for smuggling attempt
The rocket interception was the result of intensive, weeks-long intelligence and operational work on the part of the Shin Bet. According to media reports, the Shin Bet informed the army of an anticipated attempt to take the missiles out of Nablus through the northern neighborhoods of the city.

The IDF had imposed a blockade on Nablus several weeks ago, reportedly to prevent the rockets from leaving the city, and it prepared for the operation after receiving intelligence that Hamas would attempt to smuggle the missiles into Jenin.

Border Patrol troops, elite commandos, and infantry and armored corps units were deployed at the exits from Nablus as an Israeli Air Force surveillance drone flew overhead, Ha'aretz reported. At approximately 3:30 p.m., Israeli troops spotted men loading a truck with equipment taken from another vehicle in the northeast of Nablus.

Soldiers from a reserve unit stopped the truck at a roadblock set up near Ein Bidan, just north of the city, and arrested the driver. Palestinians from the neighborhood began to attack the soldiers with stones and Molotov cocktails, at which point the commanding officer drove the truck to the Shomron Brigade Command, where the missiles were found dismantled and hidden in flour sacks among the crates of fruits and vegetables.

Israel had issued unequivocal warnings regarding missiles
Israel has warned the Palestinian Authority through multiple channels that any attempt to fire the Kassam-2 at its cities would occasion an extremely harsh response, including perhaps the reconquest of cities from which the rockets were fired.

After Hamas fired Kassam-1 rockets on January 26, sources in the IDF said that if the Palestinians deployed the Kassam-2, the act would "change the rules of the game." Several days earlier, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that such an act would precipitate a "total change" in Israel's method of operating against the PA.

"It's clear that if these rockets are employed, it would be unlike anything that has happened until now," a senior IDF official said at the time. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer confirmed yesterday from Washington that the use of Kassam-2 missiles against Israeli cities "would be a dramatic change of everything happening in the territories and we would have to respond accordingly."

The PA said that it had opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident, ynet reported. "If we're not talking about Israeli manipulation," PA officials said, "serious steps will be taken against those responsible for the act."

On Tuesday, Hizbullah television station Al-Manar broadcast footage of the Tanzim launching its new Al Aqsa-1 and Al Aqsa-2 rockets at Gush Katif in the southern Gaza Strip. The Tanzim claimed the rockets are more powerful and have a longer range than the Kassams. A Border Police unit sweeping the Netzer Hazani area of Gush Katif on Tuesday discovered fragments, which may have been left by the Tanzim missiles.

Ongoing terror forms backdrop to Sharon's U.S. visit
Wednesday's capture of the rockets and the terrorist attack on the Jordan Valley settlement of Hamra occurred just as Sharon departed for a diplomatic visit to the U.S.

Late Wednesday night, police found an explosive device in the car of two Palestinians at a roadblock near the Israeli Arab city of Tira. The initial assessment was that the men were on their way to carry out a suicide attack. The bomb, discovered in the trunk of the car, was neutralized and the two were transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning.

Earlier in the day, Border Policemen arrested a suspected suicide bomber on a bus outside Jerusalem. The driver was alerted to the presence of a suspicious-looking passenger, who had boarded the bus near Maale Adumim. Noticing wires sticking out of the man's coat, the driver pulled over at a roadblock and instructed passengers to exit by the back door. Police apprehended the Palestinian before he had a chance to detonate the explosive belt he was wearing.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said on Wednesday evening that the capture of the Kassam-2 rockets would only bear out Sharon's expected recommendation to the U.S. to sever ties with PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. "Every suicide bomber, every Kassam-2, only improves the understanding between Israel and the United States," he said.

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