Israel's Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz approved on Tuesday a limited call-up of the Israeli army's reserve soldiers due to a large amount of "terror alerts" and the urgent need to heighten security along the "seam-line boundary" with the West Bank.
Mofaz's approval allows a call-up of reserve personnel, the implementation of which would be decided upon by the Israeli army's operational command based on developments in the field.
The call-up would involve a relatively small number of
reservists who will reinforce troops preventing the secret movement of Palestinians from the West Bank into Israel.
Also Tuesday, Israeli authorities released a map pinpointing what it claimed were houses and offices of Palestinian leaders in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The Israeli army said the map was meant to illustrate the extent of the "Terror Network in the Damascus Region."
The Israeli army map shows supposed locations of the homes of high-ranking Hamas leaders Mousa Abu Marzook and Khaled Mashal, Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah and Ahmed Jibril, chief of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC).
In addition, it shows 10 sites in Damascus the Israeli army says are the political, military and in some cases media offices for Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Fatah and the PFLP-GC.
For their part, Hamas and Islamic Jihad sources in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said Abu Marzook, Mashal and Shallah moved between Damascus and Beirut for "security reasons."
"The map is proof of the extensive presence of Palestinian terror groups in Syria," an Israeli security source said. "We said it before and we say it again, everyone that is involved in terror and endangers the lives of Israeli citizens is not immune." (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
