JERUSALEM – The Jewish state is headed toward a major, violent confrontation with the Palestinian Arabs, while Prime Minister Olmert’s plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank will “not help” to decrease the terrorism, according to an Israeli army assessment.

The prognosis will be released in an official Israeli Defense Force report next month. It follows interviews with The New York Sun in which the leaders of every major Palestinian Arab terror organization said recent events here are leading them to launch what they call a third intifada – or violent confrontation against Israel. The terrorists warned of suicide bombings, rocket attacks against Jewish communities, and “a few new surprises in our arsenal.”

“The new intifada is only a question of time, and this will be the hardest and the most dangerous one. It’s just about timing until the order to blow up a new wave of attacks will be given,” a senior Al Aqsa Brigades leader from the Balata refugee camp in northern Samaria, Abu Nasser, said.

The IDF report outlines the army’s general assessment for the next five years. It lists Iran’s nuclear program as the top danger to Israel, followed by the threat of a renewed conflict with the Palestinian Arabs. The third level of threat is all out war.

According to sources close to the report, it states that in order to prepare for the expected upcoming conflict with the Palestinian Arabs, IDF resources should be shifted more toward counterterrorism units and away from traditional forms of warfare, such as armor, artillery, and the engineering corps.

The Associated Press quoted Israeli intelligence officials familiar with the report stating that the document contends Mr. Olmert’s plan to evacuate the West Bank will do little to decrease the scope of violence in the region. Security officials told the Sun they expect the withdrawal to result in a major increase in terrorism.

The trend of violence here has already been increasing by the week. Israeli security organizations say they have more than 60 general warnings of planned suicide attacks, most targeting central Israel. Last week two suicide bombings were thwarted.

Security officials point to an increase in violent attacks against Israelis, such as stabbings, shootings, and lobbing of Molotov cocktails.

Rocket attacks against Jewish communities near Gaza have been carried out so frequently, some Israeli defense officials and government ministers have recommended reoccupying parts of the territory, which was vacated by Israel last August. Israeli defense officials say there is information that terrorists in the northern West Bank are seeking to develop a rocket infrastructure there for a future onslaught.

The defense officials also say Hamas, which agreed to a long-term cease-fire with Israel, has been amassing large stocks of weapons so its operatives will be ready to launch attacks immediately should its leadership decide to end the “lull” in fighting.

They say Iran and Syria, currently under mounting international pressure, are streaming large sums of money to Palestinian Arab terror groups to prompt local cells to carry out attacks in hopes of starting regional violence.

Some officials tie the expected increase in violence to Mr. Olmert’s West Bank withdrawal plan. After Israel announced it would withdraw from Gaza, terror organizations, mostly led by Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees umbrella group, increased attacks in the area, at one point firing an average of seven rockets a day at Gaza’s Jewish communities. Security officials told the Sun they fear terror groups will increase attacks to claim credit for any Israeli pullout from the West Bank.

Al Aqsa’s Mr. Nasser claims Israel put Hamas in power and said his group has been launching a new terror onslaught as a result. “For [many] months we respected a cease-fire, expecting to see changes in the lives of the Palestinian people, but we received from the Israeli side more assassinations … and above all we received the Hamas victory, which seems to be the result of an Israeli and international conspiracy,” Mr. Nasser told the Sun.

Abu Oudai, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader responsible for coordinating the organization’s rocket network in the West Bank, warned that his organization is preparing a rocket war against Israel.

“I don’t need to tell you that the aerial distance from Jenin to Netanya, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and other cities is not big,” he said.

He said his group is developing a new rocket that will put all of Israel’s major cities within firing range.

Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella organization consisting of several Palestinian Arab terror groups, said his group has transported missiles to the West Bank.

“If there is need, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and everywhere in Israel can become our target,” Mr. Abir told the Sun. “Israelis must also know that we have already transferred the knowledge and the technology of producing rockets to the West Bank.”