Truce is code for rearming, restocking ...bombs, bullets, terrorists

Despite Gaza truce, Palestinian militants still building rockets

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Nearly two months after Israel entered into a truce with militant groups in Gaza, at least one of them says it is building longer-range rockets that Israel says would violate the cease-fire.
As Palestinians make rockets, Israel says that would violate the Egyptian-brokered truce reached in June.

As Palestinians make rockets, Israel says that would violate the Egyptian-brokered truce reached in June.

In a rare display of militant public relations, the Popular Resistance Committees last week showed off its training techniques and a rocket factory to journalists. The militants showed off what they said was a new rocket, called the Nasser-4, which can travel 25 km (16 miles) -- double the range of the existing Nasser-3. If true, larger Israeli cities like Ashkelon and Ashdod would be under threat of attack.

There appeared to be little doubt that the PRC wants Israel to see the pictures. Rocket makers were positioned to give the camera the best angle during a highly choreographed visit by CNN journalists, who were blindfolded before being brought there last week. And in a previous day's visit, the group showed off a training ground where gunmen said they were preparing for what they see as an imminent Israeli incursion into Gaza.

"We have been under siege for the last two years," said Ibrahim Dahman, the only militant who allowed his face to be videotaped, since he is already wanted by Israel. "The only thing left is for them to invade and kill us."

Israel says that the rockets would represent a violation of the six-month Egyptian-brokered truce reached in June.

"If the cease-fire is just a front for extremists in Gaza to rearm and regroup, of course we have the right to act," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told CNN. "Any arms buildup is a direct violation of the calm that was achieved."

In more than a year after the Islamic militant group Hamas wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian fighters fired more than 5,000 crudely made rockets into Israeli towns and cities. Four civilians have been killed and many more wounded.

The PRC said the rockets it displayed recently are but a drop in an ocean of surprises in store for Israel should it attempt to reoccupy Gaza, from which it withdrew in 2005. Revered as freedom fighters by many here, but reviled as terrorists by Israel and many in the West, the group is one of many Gaza-based factions: By its own account, it has been involved in rocket attacks on Israel and the kidnapping two years ago of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Its "training ground" proved to be a dead-end road that was used for marching drills. Near the road, tires -- intended for use in target practice -- were stacked in front of the wall of a building. More tires were set ablaze around the area, emitting putrid, thick, black smoke intended to conceal the training from Israeli aircraft.

The PRC invited CNN journalists to view a training session Thursday night, offering 30-minutes notice.

The militants served heavily sugared tea and provided chairs from which to watch the training, as masked gunmen practiced shooting at targets and taking hostages. One fighter said he would never let his son fire a gun, but that he is fighting to make a better future for his family. Wearing a ski mask and carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher over his shoulder, he vowed to destroy any Israeli who enters Gaza.

The following day, the militants offered 20-minutes notice for a trip to the rocket factory. A CNN correspondent and photographer were blindfolded and transferred into the back of an unmarked van outside Gaza City. Their mobile phones were confiscated, and the blindfolds were removed only when the van arrived at the plant.

CNN was the only Western news organization to take part in the tour, though several Gaza-based journalists for local outlets were also there.

Inside the "factory" -- a tiny room with rockets lining the walls -- masked men tried to light a fire from a gas canister in order to heat the explosives to liquefy them so that they could be poured into the shells. But despite the apparent painstaking planning that went into the display, the rocketmakers sometimes fell short.

First, the lighter didn't work. Then, a leak in a canister filled the room with suffocating gas. Explosions, euphemistically called "workplace accidents," occur in Gaza from time to time, but the men building the rockets handled deadly ingredients and warheads in a visibly relaxed manner.

Hamas, which controls Gaza and the militant factions it contains, says that it is the responsibility of the 16 factions that agreed to the truce with Israel to respect it. The PRC says it supports Hamas, but a spokesman said last week that it would return to violence if improvements, like the opening of border crossings, don't occur.

Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Hamas would be held accountable if anything were to happen to break the truce.

"They control the Gaza Strip with quite an iron fist, if you don't mind me saying, and none of this activity with the other groups would be happening unless Hamas was complicit and allowing it to happen," he said.