The Hamas group attacked Israel with various different types of bombs such as RPG’s, missiles and C4 explosives. This caused incredible damage to Israel and started a conflict using bombs.
Suicide attacks – Suicide attacks are when people target an area where they have the intent to either kill or seriously harm a large amount of people. They can do this by either doing things like strapping explosives to themselves, driving vehicles with large amounts of explosives inside them or even passenger planes carrying large amounts of explosives. The person/people undergoing the suicide attack are certain to die, so that is why it is called a suicide attack.
The Palestine’s and the Israeli’s were in conflict, and a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated a bag of explosives at a bakery in the Israeli resort town of Eilat, killing himself and three Israelis.
Assassinations – An assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure. Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. The assassins may be motivated by a serious amount of money being offered, revenge, or personal public recognition or they may be mentally ill. In the modern day assassinations the most common way would be to either shoot the person from a long range in a discreet place or planting gunpowder explosives or grenades in cars or vehicles.
A famous assassination was the one of Mahatma Gandhi it was by a young Hindu extremist while walking to his prayer meeting in the lawn of Birla House, New Delhi.
Types of counter terrorist measures used to combat terrorism
Financial measures – There have been many actions taken by the UN, the OCSE and the British Government. Such as;
- Consultation with the charitable sector to keep it safe from terrorism.
- More data-sharing between the public and private sectors and better pooling of intelligence.
- Revised money laundering regulations
- Changes to the consent and tipping off rules
- Tackling the abuse of money service businesses.
Millions of pounds of terrorist funding has been confiscated in Britain, the links between terrorist funding and crime funding in general can make the money a lot easier to find, but there is still legal difficulties in identifying terrorist money and getting access to suspected terrorist accounts.
Sanctions –This is the agreed cutting of trade between the UK and to countries which appear to support terrorism. Sanctions can be targeted like trying to put a ban on military equipment or materials that may be developing nuclear power. In the past the UK has carried out sanctions with against Serbia, North Korea, Iran and Iraq. If the things they have stopped trading are things like food and medicine the residents of the country may struggle a lot more and cause hardship.
Direct retaliation – Direct Retaliation is when a country retaliates directly after a terrorist attack has been made from an opposing country. Like the war in Afghanistan started in 2001 and lasted for roughly 6 weeks which included intense bombings, this was a direct retaliation for the 9/11 attack on the US.
Extra-judicial killing of suspects – This is when a suspected terrorist leader is killed without making any arrest or bringing them to trial. For example in Israel the killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, this was straight after the killing of his predecessor Sheik Yassin. These killings are Illegal and have been condemned as unlawful, they can also provoke an international outcry
The US led ‘war on terrorism’ - The War on Terrorism is the common term for the military, political, legal and ideological conflict against Islamic terrorism and Muslim militants, and specifically used in reference to operations by the United States, since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Training for biological and chemical attack – Biological and chemical attacks usually quite rare. Hospitals are places where they could have a devastating affect, so the NHS provide training on what to do if an attack is made. This may include things like risk assessments, communications, command and control, evacuation plans etc. The last attack was made in 1995 in Tokyo subways it was a gas attack on the 20th march, which killed 12 people injured 3800 and 1000 had to go to hospital.
Threat assessments – Before July 2006 terrorist attack threat assessments did not exist, but now the home office publicises its own threat level assesment. Threat levels are as following;
- Low – an attack is likely
- Moderate – an attack is possible
- Substantial – an attack is a strong possibility
- Severe – an attack is highly likely
- Critical – an attack is expected imminently.
Control of immigration and asylum seekers – Asylum seekers do not usually like or condone terrorism anymore than anyone else, but in the past Britain has been accused of allowing assylum seekers who are really terrorists in the country. So therefore a number of laws have been created to try and stop this happening. The Asylum and immigration act 1996 made it more difficult for immigrants to get work in Britain and meant employers had to check people’s papers before they can employ them.
Security of public buildings – Airports, train bus and tube stations, sports grounds, nightclubs and large shopping malls are the building that are most at risk of terrorism, mainly because there large amounts of people in these places at one time. So they have increased security around these buildings, they try and do this by having large evacuation plans, and having staff that are trained in dealing with chemical attacks.
Awareness/vigilance campaigns/advertisements - The government tries to encourage people to be more aware/vigilant in security situations, and to report cases where they think there is a chance of a terrorist attack or even if they think there is terrorist training or planning taking place.
Build relationships with communities - The police and prison service have extensive diversity and awareness training to try and make them better and able to communicate with ethnic minorities. The police force also have PCSO’s to try and make the community feel that there is more of a police presence and to maintain a strong contact with the public.
