Six terror attacks in a day: The Shin Bet story you didn't hear
In segment not included in award winning documentary 'The Gatekeepers,' former Shin Bet chiefs Yuval Diskin, Avi Dichter discuss their experiences with terror threats
In 2012, the six surviving former heads of Israel's internal security service, known as the Shin Bet, went on camera to give an honest account of their experiences.
The film, "The Gatekeepers," directed by Dror Moreh, was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary and received wide international acclaim.
In a segment that was not included in the final film, Yuval Diskin (Shin Bet chief 2005-2011) and his immediate predecessor Avi Dichter (2000-2005) discuss what it really means to be the man in charge with terrorists on the loose.
This is what they said in that unseen outtake:
Diskin: I'll tell you a real story. In March 2006, a suicide bomber sets out from the Jenin area, and starts making his way to cross the West Bank. He gets to what we call the "Jerusalem envelope". He crosses the Jerusalem envelope and starts heading for the Check Post junction on the outskirts of Haifa, where he was actually supposed to commit suicide.
Jerusalem checkpoint set up after terror alert (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
We are getting the information piecemeal, and begin to understand that first and foremost someone has set out from the Jenin area with very bad intentions, and he is heading southwards across the West Bank. Why south? Because there was by then a fence, a buffer that did not allow him to take a shorter route from the Jenin area to the Check Post junction, and the most permeable area was the Jerusalem envelope.
He moved towards Jerusalem, where there are all sorts of ways to bypass the checkpoints using human smugglers. We know that someone like this is moving, but since we were in a period of relative calm, we were a bit "rusty" – leading to a gap between our intelligence and our operations.
The terrorist had already reached the Jerusalem area and started moving on Route 1. He exits towards the Sha'alvim area. A little while before this we had mobilized our operations unit with a team from the Special Police Unit (SPU). In practice we work as one unit, and together they had taken care of dozens such cases in the past.
March 2006, terror attack thwarted on Route 1 (Photo: Scoop 80)
Essentially, we're trying to locate which vehicle the suicide bomber is in. From our point of view this is a guided missile that is on the way to its destination, and we must intercept it. If you will, the "Arrow" missile that needs to be launched is this same operations unit with the SPU. Eventually we arrive at Sha'alvim, set up a roadblock, and begin searching vehicles.
Dichter: So now you have to go from car to car to get him.
You need to understand, the people doing this are the combat officers, and it doesn't matter if they are Shin Bet or SPU or police, you know that when one reaches the terrorist, the terrorist is going to blow himself up. He's on his way to a suicide bombing, what does he care if he blows himself up at the intended destination, or right there in the traffic jam?
If you had slightly more accurate information, you could start to get a handle on him. If they say to you, "listen, he's wearing a red shirt", then suddenly you know to look for someone more specific. You're trying to look for a car that you know has Arabs in it.
Scene of thwarted terror attack in Jerusalem (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
And eventually you reach the car. You know that he's inside this car. So what do you do now? You can see people (the combat officers) trying to disconnect from what they know is going to happen to them, and what they know will happen if they don’t get to that car.
What goes through the mind of these officers? Their realities, their jobs are "ticking time-bombs." Think about it, you're running towards a security event, knowing that it's a "ticking time-bomb" and that you may pay with your life. Sometimes it's chilling, obviously. You can't say for certain what the reasons are. Does he have an explosive belt on him? Will he press the trigger?
I try to get into the head of the people in the operations unit chasing after such men, knowing that if they try to arrest them, they will blow up right next to them. How do they manage?
Diskin: Look, the guys in this unit are of the highest caliber, and I think that during an operation you don't have too much time to think, or even fear. You're feel fear in between operations, but when you're in the middle of one, in my opinion, you don't have much time to think.
We had more than one such incident. For example, the story of the terrorist from the Jenin area who had a Jewish-Russian girlfriend, who had put an explosive device at a kiosk on Allenby Street. We chased after him; we understood he was returning from Tel Aviv to the Jenin area through Wadi Ara, and we're chasing after him there. Eventually we manage to isolate some vehicles, and the personnel of the operations unit chased the suspect in a way that few action movies present, in terms of the risks they took during the pursuit, until they managed to block off the terrorist, and then the guys went over and searched the vehicle.
Look, you are searching for a vehicle that has a suicide bomber, it's very possible that you'll open the door and he'll press the trigger and in that moment you and him are heading skywards.
Then one of the guys arrived, one of our commanders there, and stuck his head in the vehicle; the terrorist took the gun he had and shot the explosive device in order to detonate it. Luckily, our man wasn't hurt, since he only put his head inside and not his whole body. He was hurt, but sustained a relatively light injury. It's sticking your head in the lion's mouth.
Later on we improved the tools and the methods to minimize the risks for our agents. You can write a lot of thriller stories from these things. Even stories that are much harder than this.
Six terror attacks in a day: The Shin Bet story you didn't hear / Part 2 of 2
In segment not included in award winning documentary 'The Gatekeepers,' former Shin Bet chiefs Yuval Diskin, Avi Dichter discuss their experiences with terror threats
In 2012, the six surviving former heads of Israel's internal security service, known as the Shin Bet, went on camera to give an honest account of their experiences.
The film, "The Gatekeepers," directed by Dror Moreh, was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary and received wide international acclaim.
In a segment that was not included in the final film, Yuval Diskin (Shin Bet chief 2005-2011) and his immediate predecessor Avi Dichter (2000-2005) discuss what it really means to be the man in charge with terrorists on the loose.
Do you talk with the people in the operations unit?
Diskin: Yes, we talk with them. I spoke with them quite a bit in the difficult years (the Second Intifada). The number of operations in general that we did during those years was very high. We became very tired both physically and mentally. There is a lot of pressure. At the end of the day there's nothing you can do; we're human beings and we get worn out from this type of thing. I have no doubt that the people who worked with us, as well as in other units, paid the price and maybe are still paying the price from that era of terror.
In the case of the Sha'alvim terrorist, we managed to find the terrorist in one of the cars with explosives. It's understandable that this drama stirred up the press in Israel and everyone applauded the Shin Bet and put us on a pedestal. It was great to read that in the papers, but inside the organization I ordered for there to be a ruthless debriefing because from our perspective we were supposed to have stopped the terrorist before he entered Israel.
The fact that we caught him at Sha'alvim at the last minute was perceived as a failure on our part, not a success. Let's say that he does commit suicide. Instead of turning onto Road 1 he says, wait, why should I drive to Haifa? I'll enter Jerusalem and I'll detonate myself on King George Street, right in the center of city… we wouldn't have been able to stop the attack.
Scene of thwarted terror attack in Jerusalem (Photo: Gil Yohanan/Archive)
What's more dramatic for the public than to know that our good boys of the Shin Bet and the Yamam (an elite counter-terrorism and SWAT unit) catching the terrorist right before he reaches his destination? They really are great workers and they really did do fanatstic work, but we should have caught him 50 kilometers beforehand.
And that's not their fault, rather it's ours, those who make the decisions, who were a bit rusty, as I said earlier, and it took us a bit of time to send off our special unit and take all the necessary steps in order to catch the terrorist. Therefore, in a lot of management courses, I tell the people serving with us: "Don't believe what they're writing about us in the newspapers. Believe what you know to be true about yourselves."
What goes through your mind when you hear that there's a terrorist with explosives on his way to execute a terrorist attack?
It'll surprise you. These aren’t the most difficult times in our lives. You're so pumped up with adrenalin and you're so focused on the intelligence and operatives and making decisions, that this becomes your "aquarium" where you get used to swimming, and we feel fine and comfortable there.
You're focused, sharp, you understand what's going on, you know what your tools are, you know what actions need to be take, you're tense because you want these things to happen, and at the right time, and you hope that you got to the suicide terrorist or to the potential attack where you want to be. Understandably, on the way, things don't always happen the way you want, but feelings usually come after – if you've succeeded or failed.
March 2006, terror attack thwarted on Route 1 (Photo: Scoop 80)
I can't describe how everyone else feels. I only know how to describe my experiences. There are times where there's a transition from being so elevated – knowing that you succeeded in a mission and you realize what exactly was prevented at that exact moment – to a feeling of emptiness. It's as if all the air left your body. All of sudden you feel that you can relax, and then you turn into a balloon that its air has been let out of and you don't feel anything.
And if God forbid we've failed, and the attack took place, and there were times like these, unfortunately, it's an awful feeling. You can't describe our disappointment, especially in cases where we had information and despite that we didn't succeed to prevent it. People take it hard, especially those who make the decisions.
The most difficult day that I remember from the Second Intifada was when we had to deal with six different attacks. On that day we simultaneously dealt with six different areas, attacks that were heading to our vicinity on one day. About from 5 am to midnight we sat, a large group of people, and like the Dutch, we kept trying to close the hole in another part of the dam. By the way, we finished the day with a 100% success rate, but I can't remember another day like this.
There were six suicide bombers on their way to Israel?
There were six terrorists on their way to six different areas on one of the most difficult days of the Second Intifada. I remember the night before, (Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon) Bugi, who wasIDF deputy chief of general staff, and I, who was deputy head of the Shin Bet met in this room, and I said to him: Bugi, listen, these are the attacks that are going to happen. We're seeing a buildup of warnings, and we have to be ready with a lot of resources and tools and units and other necessary things.
We sat here and we settled together what would be the plans and how we're gong to work in real time. We made a general recruitment of all of the IDF's and our tools and resources, and with tremendous cooperation that day we succeeded to prevent them all. But that was a very tumultuous day. I don’t remember another one like it.
How do you describe something like this… you can watch the TV show 24… but here there are six attacks on one day?
Diskin: There are also other difficulties. When I was deputy head of the Shin Bet, one of our officers in the operations unit, who was in a lot of operations during the era, wanted to talk to me in private. He told me: Listen, Yuval, I'm in a lot of situations that it's difficult for me to deal with them. We're trying to catch a lot of wanted people with blood on their hands and when we get there we find out that he's in an apartment building. Sometimes there are a lot of stories. Two, three, four, and in a city it can be a lot higher. You don’t always know where he is, in which apartment. You know that he's armed, and sometimes you know that he's carrying explosives on himself.
IDF soldiers deploy to arrest terrorists with Shin Bet intelligence (Photo: AP/archive)
How do you deal with a situation like that? How do you start removing people from the house? And usually these types of operations happen in the late hours of the night, and seniors and women and babies have to come outside, and sometimes it takes hours to get to the terrorist. And, suddenly, there are people standing on the side, with their needs. They want to rest or they want to go to the side to go to the bathroom or to do other things. We're so busy that it's as if we've sealed ourselves off to what's happening on the side, to the people.
He said to me: Listen, it bothers me that because all day and all night we're running over and over again that we've become tired and have stopped being sensitive to these small issues. At the end of the day I'm a human being. It doesn't matter if I'm in the Shin Bet, the army, at the end of the day I'm a human being. I understand why it's important to do what we're doing, but these people need to wake up and get out of this position.
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