Dee Finney's blog
start date July 20, 2011
today's date November 16, 2012
page 376
TOPIC: ISRAEL UNDER ATTACK FROM HAMAS
UPDATE 11-19-12 - GAZA AND ISRAEL EXCHANGING MANY ROCKETS - 1,000 FROM ISRAEL TO GAZA - 1300 FROM GAZA TO ISRAEL.
92 DEAD IN GAZA - 3 DEAD IN ISRAEL
ISRAEL HAS AN ANTI-ROCKET PROGRAM THAT CAN KNOCK DOWN MISSILES THAT ARE HEADED FOR POPULATED AREAS.
THEY DON'T BOTHER WITH THE ONES THAT ARE HEADED FOR EMPTY GROUND.
ISRAEL'S GROUND TROOPS ARE LINED UP ON THE BORDER WITH ALL THEIR MACHINES -
JUST IN CASE THEY GET ORDERED
TO ENTER GAZA. MEANWHILE THERE ARE NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE - AT LEAST
TEMPORARILY. WAITING TO SEE WHAT
HAPPENS. MEDIA IS ALL THERE WITH TV CAMERAS ROLLING.
NOTE: ON 11-21-12 I HAD THIS DREAM:
11-21-12 - DREAM - I was in a house somewhere with the radio on. At the
time, I was researching the topic of tin manufacturing. They announced on the
news that Israel had been hit by 30,000 bombs.
Immediately I had to get in a bathtub of warm soapy water to decontaminate myself and then the house. Next to the bathtub was another bathtub, and all I had to move the water from one bathtub to the other one was a small sponge.
From the bathroom door, I could see an old grandmother sitting at the kitchen table, and my boyfriend - a middle aged man.
EOD
11-25-12 - AFTER TWO BLESSED DAYS OF CEASE FIRE: HEZBOLLAH WARNS ISRAEL THAT TELEVIV IS THEIR NEXT TARGET.
SEE BELOW FOR THE ARTICLE:
THIS IS BREAKING NEWS TODAY:
by Diana Buttu
Ramallah, West Bank — The Globe and Mail
Published
It is with horror that I watch the latest events in Gaza unfold.
As a Canadian based in the West Bank who once lived in Gaza, I know
the fear that is currently running through the veins of each man,
woman and especially child as they face Israel’s unrelenting aerial
and naval bombardment. My time in Gaza was marked by long periods of
aerial bombings and sonic booms. I still– 6 years later – live with
those horrible memories and the sheer sense of helplessness and
hopelessness that ensued.
Today, the Gaza Strip is a much different place. The people have
not changed – they are just as vibrant, funny and full of life as
they were when I lived there – but their living conditions, and
prospects for a bright future, have grown dim.
Today, the people of Gaza suffer from a brutal blockade that has
lasted for more than 6 years and isolation that has lasted for more
than 20 years. Israel strictly controls imports into Gaza and
exports are virtually non-existent. Palestinian life is so
controlled by Israel that the Israeli government even sets policies
on the minimum number of calories needed to prevent malnutrition.
Access to the sea – one of their main sources of livelihood – is
strictly curtailed and the water of the Gaza Strip is barely
drinkable, with less than 5 per cent of their water supply fit for
human consumption. Today, Gaza is an open-air prison and it comes as
little surprise that UN agencies recently concluded that, in a few
years, Gaza will become unlivable.
But these facts have to be put in their proper light by looking
at the population of Gaza. Today, 90 per cent of Gaza’s population
is descended from the over 750,000 Palestinians ethnically cleansed
in 1947-1949 from their homes in what is today Israel. More than 50
per cent of the population of Gaza is under the age of 18 and 20 per
cent are under the age of 5.
They live in one of the most densely populated places on Earth,
without reasonable prospects for survival. All of these measures –
the blockade, isolation, siege, and damaged water supply – will have
a tremendously detrimental impact on the lives of these young
individuals. These are not natural disasters, but man-made ones.
Now, heaped on top, is Israel’s latest bombing campaign, one that
does not distinguish civilian from combatant, adult from child –
notwithstanding false Israeli claims otherwise.
Israeli Army officials have taken to Twitter and other social media to belittle death. In the aftermath of one assassination, the Israeli army participated in the hashtag #HamasBumperStickers with one Israeli army official tweeting, “My car is a stairway to heaven with a little help from Israel.”
The effects are sadly on display: In the past few days alone,
Israel has dropped more than 250 bombs on this densely populated
land. These attacks are supplemented by naval and tank shelling.
Among the 22 Palestinian victims are two school children playing
soccer, an 11-month-old infant, a pregnant mother and three other
children.
Israel has repeatedly asserted that any “democratic country” such
as Canada would do the same and that it was left with “no choice.”
These are patently false assertions. What Israel fails to explain is
that other democracies have not maintained a brutal 45-year military
occupation over another people; that other countries have not denied
freedom to another people for decades; that other countries do not
routinely expropriate land for Jewish-only housing and roads and
that democratic countries do not control virtually every aspect of
the lives of another people (including caloric consumption).
Yes, there are other options: Israel can easily end its military
rule over Palestinians – in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip –
and allow Palestinians to live in the freedom and dignity that is
their right, and that of others around the world. Continuing to
maintain control over the lives of others is only a recipe for
disaster.
History has demonstrated that no subjugated people will willingly
live under oppressive rule. The Palestinians are no different. The
time has come for Israel to end its oppressive rule and allow the
Palestinians to live in freedom.
Bombing a civilian, stateless, refugee population is not the
answer.
Diana Buttu is a Canadian lawyer based in the West Bank. In 2000-2006 she served as an adviser and negotiator for the Palestinian Liberation Organization and to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
White House Correspondent
Israeli
soldiers ride on top of an armored personnel carrier close to
the Israel-Gaza border,in
southern Israel. …The White
House on Thursday threw its full support behind
Israel's military response to a barrage of rockets fired by the
Islamist Palestinian
movement Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip. Deputy National
Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes said it
would be "up to the Israeli government" whether to follow up
punishing
airstrikes with a ground assault.
"Our view is that the Israelis have the right of
self-defense when their citizens are faced with the threat ofindiscriminate
rocket fire from within
Gaza," Rhodes told reporters on a conference call.
Asked whether the Obama administration
would have any issues with an Israeli ground assault, Rhodes
replied that "ultimately, it's up to the Israeli government to
make determinations
about how they're going
to carry out their military objectives."
The Associated Press has reportedthat Hamas fired more
than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing
three people, and that Israel seemed to be gearing
up for a groundinvasion
of Gaza. The escalating
conflict amounted to President Barack Obama's first major
foreign policy test since
winning
re-election Nov. 6.Rhodes
said American officials werein
close consultation with their Israeli counterparts "to
have an understanding
of their plans going
forward." The Obama administration
has beenin
discussions with Turkey, Egypt and "some of our European
partners," he said, thought to have sway over Hamasin
order to get them to urge the militant organization to
halt its rocket attacks.
"At the United Nations, where this is being
discussed, we've sought to keep the focus where it should
be—which is on Hamas's rocket fire as the precipitating
cause here," Rhodes explained.
"What we've also said is that the best course of action
would be for there to be a general de-escalation of the
violence, but that the onus is on Hamas—and those withinfluence
over Hamas—to help bring
about that de-escalation, so that we don't see a widening
conflict," he told reporters. "So we certainly
want to see a de-escalation, we certainly
want to see a broader conflict avoided."
The official noted that
the White House has urged Israelto take "all steps ...
to avoid civilian casualties." He added, "And we deeply regret
the loss of life on the Israeli and Palestinian
side."
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren briefed key senators on the operation. The lawmakers—Democrats and Republicans—released a joint statementexpressing "solidarity" with Israel while warning that "escalation will only lead to further suffering on both sides."
Rockets, airstrikes reignite Mideast conflict
GAZA BOY FIGHTING BACK TEARS
ISREAL SOLDER FIRES TEAR GAS AT PALESTINIAN STONE THROWERS
PALESTINIAN YOUTH INSPECTS DESTROYED MOSQUE IN
NORTHERN GAZA
MISSLE BOMBING IN GAZA 11-15-12
Israelis take cover in a pipe used as a bomb shelter, after a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, November 15 in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. Rockets and shells crisscrossed between Israel and Gaza on Thursday as Palestinian militants continued rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel pounded what it called terror sites.
CNN) -- Israel launched a series of
blistering airstrikes Wednesday on what it says are terrorist
targets in Gaza, killing the chief of Hamas' military wing and
at least eight others, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
As the tensions
ratcheted up, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency
meeting Wednesday evening.
Palestinian
leaders immediately condemned the attacks as an escalation, with
President Mahmoud Abbas calling for an emergency session of the
Council of the League of Arab States to discuss what he called
Israeli "aggression," the Egyptian state news agency MENA
reported.
Hamas' military
wing warned that Israelis had opened "the gates of hell on
themselves" with the move.
A report on the Israel Defense Forces website said Brig. Gen.
Yoav Moredechai would not rule out a ground attack.
"Infantry
brigades have been shifted in preparation for the operation," he
said, according to the website.
Israeli military spokeswoman Lt. Colonel Avital Leibovich said: "There are some reserve units that are preparing but nothing more than that at this point."
There were at
least 70 strikes by warplanes and ships Wednesday, officials
from Palestinian militant groups said. As night fell, more
airstrikes could be heard, and Hamas security officials said
four more attacks hit empty swaths of farmland in Gaza late
Wednesday. The IDF said at least 128 rockets had been fired from
Gaza since Saturday.
Q&A on Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israel's Iron
Dome air defense system intercepted 28 rockets launched at
Israel on Wednesday, the IDF said on its
Twitter feed, which it was updating almost hourly with new
details as well as links to photos.
One of the
posters on the IDF's feed was Al-Qassam, the military wing of
Hamas, which has the Twitter ID of
Alqassam Brigades..
It wrote: "@idfspokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)."/p>
PPalestinian
medical sources said at least eight people died in the Israeli
airstrikes, including two young girls, and 84 others were
wounded, 10 in serious condition. However, the health minister
in Gaza, Mufid al-Mukhalalati, put the death toll at seven.
The dead included Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the popular and influential head of the Hamas military wing, and his son, the group said on its website./p>
TThe Israeli
operation -- which the military calls "Operation Pillar of
Defense" -- came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned
this week of pending retaliation by Israel for increased rocket
attacks from Gaza.
"I would ask
you, I'd ask any person around the planet: What would you do if
your population was targeted day after day?" Israeli government
spokesman Mark Regev said, later adding that "you have to see
our operation as fundamentally defensive."
Egypt recalled
its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign
Ministry said. A senior Israeli official said its ambassador to
Egypt returned home, but that move wasn't related to the ongoing
violence. The official wouldn't comment on whether Israel had
pulled its entire diplomatic staff from Egypt.
The United
States said Israel has the right to defend itself, according to
a statement from the State Department.
"We strongly
condemn the barrage of rocket fire from Gaza into southern
Israel, and we regret the death and injury of innocent Israeli
and Palestinian civilians caused by the ensuing violence," the
statement said. "There is no justification for the violence that
Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against
the people of Israel. We call on those responsible to stop these
cowardly acts immediately."
The White House
said in a news release that President Obama spoke with Netanyahu
by phone, reiterating the United States support for Israel.
Obama also spoke with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy and the
two agreed it was important to help de-escalate the situation
quickly, the White House statement said.
Read more: Hamas justice system 'reeks of injustice,' rights
group says
A spokesman for
Hamas, Osama Hamdan, claimed that Hamas has been defending
itself from Israeli attacks.
"I think the
ones who declared war was Israel, and I think the Palestinians
are in the position of defending themselves and nothing more
than this," he said. Hamas will resist as long as the Israeli
offensive lasts, Hamdan said.
Israeli navy
ships could be seen firing into Gaza from the Mediterranean. The
navy struck "terror sites" there, the IDF said via Twitter.
The Israeli
military said in a statement Wednesday it targeted "a
significant number of long-range rockets sites" to deliver "a
significant blow" to Hamas' underground rocket-launching
capabilities and munitions warehouses.
Some of the
munitions warehouses were in civilian residential buildings,
which showed that Hamas uses a strategy of human shields,
Israeli military sources said.
"The aim of
targeting these sites is to hamper their rocket-launching
weapons build up capabilities," the IDF statement said, adding
that the Gaza strip had become "a frontal base for Iran firing
rockets and carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli
citizens."
Read more: Can rival Palestinian factions reach unity deal?
Angry crowds
gathered at the heavily damaged vehicle that contained the
bodies of al-Ja'abari and his bodyguard.
Saeb Erakat, the
chief Palestinian negotiator, condemned "in the strongest
possible terms" what he called the Israeli assassination of
al-Ja'abari.
In an interview
with CNN, Erakat labeled the attack the beginning of a "major,
major Israeli escalation," and he called on the international
community to pressure Israel to halt its operation.
Al-Mukhalalati,
the Gaza health minister, also called on "the free world to stop
this massacre committed by Israel."
Asked about
assassinating al-Ja'abari, Regev said the Hamas military leader
headed a "terror military machine."
"This is the man
with blood on his hands. This man is a known and wanted
terrorist," he said. "In taking him out, Israel was acting
legitimately."
The latest
escalation in violence is part of a cycle of attacks between
periods of relative stability between Israel and the
Palestinians.
"This was both
inevitable and predictable," said Aaron David Miller, a Middle
East expert and vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
There is no
long-term basis for both sides to find a lasting peace, he said.
Israel and the
Palestinians have "completely different political and strategic
goals," Miller explained. The focus should be on how to bring
security until a basis for long-term stability arises, he added.
CNN's Ashley Fantz, Elise Labott and
Tom Cohen contributed to this report.
&
Israel's aerial bombardment of Gaza has intensified after it authorised the call-up of 30,000 army reservists, amid reports of a possible ground offensive.
Israel
said
it fired
at more than
130 targets
in Gaza
overnight, saying
militants
fired 11 rockets from Gaza.
On Thursday
rockets were fired 70km (45 miles) north of Gaza
towards
Tel
Aviv.
Fighting has
intensified since Israel
killed
Ahmed Jabari,
the military
leader
of
the Islamist
group that
controls
the territory,
on Wednesday.
At least
18 Palestinians
in Gaza
have
been killed in Israeli
airstrikes, including children,
and three Israelis
have
been killed by Palestinian
rocket fire into southern
Israel.
Egyptian
PM Hisham
Qandil
is to travel
to Gaza
later
in
a show of support. Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu
has
said
his country's offensive
action
would be suspended during
the three-hour visit,
as long
as no rockets were fired from Gaza.
Explosions
continued
in Gaza
throughout Thursday
night
as Israel
stepped up its
air bombardment,
with huge blasts
rocking Gaza
City
as dawn
broke
on Friday.
Palestinian
militants
have
continued
to fire rockets
at Israeli
cities: by Thursday
night, Hamas
said
it had
fired more than
350 rockets from Gaza,
of which Israel
said
130 had
been intercepted by its Iron
Dome missile defence system.
In Tel
Aviv
on Thursday,
residents took cover
after
air raid
sirens
alerted
them to
a missile threat
for
the first time since Iraq
targeted
the city with Scud missiles during
the Gulf War
in 1991.
One missile landed
in
an uninhabited
area
while
another
is thought to have
landed
in
the sea.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad said it had fired an Iranian-built, Fajr-5 rocket - which has an estimated range of 75km.
The focus of
the Israeli
night-time television
news was
the possible widening of this conflict
to
affect
the country's biggest city
and main
commercial
centre, Tel
Aviv, where
alarms
sounded earlier.
There were no
reported injuries but two rockets,
apparently
with
a longer-than-usual
range,
landed
nearby.
With national
media
also
reporting
the movement of Israeli
troops towards
Gaza
and
the
authorisation
of
the call-up
of reservists,
there
are growing signs of
a further
escalation
in fighting.
Israeli
Defence Minister Ehud Barak
said
targeting
Tel
Aviv would "exact
a price that
the other
side will have
to pay".
Early
on Friday,
Israel's
army saidleaflets
had
been dropped over several
locations
in
the Gaza
Strip
on Thursday,
warning
residents "to stay
away
from Hamas,
and other
terror organizations".
"Before
action,
the IDF disperses warning
leaflets
calling
all civilians
to evacuate
the
area.
This happened
[on
Thursday],"
the
army tweeted.
There were
reports of buses of Israeli
troops -
and trucks loaded
with tanks
and
armoured personnel
carriers
- heading
towards
the coastal
enclave.
Israeli
television
stations
said
the build-up suggested
an incursion
was
planned,
but military
officials
said
no decision
had
been made.
The Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, condemned what he called Israel's "ferocious assault" against the territory.
Rockets from Gaza fired on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
Updated at 2:15 p.m. ET: On the third day of escalating
violence between Israel and Gaza, air raid sirens cried out in Israel’s two
largest cities, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as residents moved into underground
shelters, NBC reporters on the scene said.
At least one rocket fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem landed outside the city,
which is more than 60 miles from the Gaza Strip, according to NBC's Martin
Fletcher. There were no injuries or damage. This was the first Palestinian
rocket to reach the vicinity of Jerusalem since 1970.
Earlier, at least one rocket fired toward coastal Tel Aviv fell into the sea.
Wake-up call for Israel's city that never sleeps
"The rocket landed off the shores of Tel Aviv," a police spokesman told
Reuters. This was the second attack on Tel Aviv in as many days, with rockets
nearly hitting the city on Thursday.
The attacks, which Israel considers to be a major escalation, could lead to
an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Israel's military is considering waging a ground campaign. It started drafting 16,000 reserve troops on Friday, as Israel's cabinet authorized the mobilization of up to 75,000 reservists. Troops are massing on the border, and witnesses said they could see Israeli ships off Gaza's coast, NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin reported.
The rocket attacks came just hours after Egypt’s prime minister visited the
Gaza Strip to show support for Palestinians amid a cross-border conflict with
Hamas militants that risks spiraling into an all-out war.
"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a
truce," Prime Minister Hesham Kandil said.
"Palestine is the heart of the Arab and Muslim world and the body is not healthy while the heart is sick," he added.
As part of operation #PillarOfDefense, the #IDF will begin recruiting 16,000 reservists. #Gaza
Kandil held the bloodied body of a child at a
hospital before leaving the Gaza Strip.
But even as Kandil made his three-hour visit to the coastal enclave, a
temporary cease-fire declared by Israel at Egypt’s request collapsed, with
both sides accusing the other of violating it.
NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin answers questions about the Israel-Gaza conflict
At least 19 Palestinians, including seven militants and 12 civilians, among them six children and a pregnant woman, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis in the town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday
ISRAEL TROOPS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to
“take whatever action is necessary,” but Israel has also expressed a strong
desire to preserve its peace with the new Egyptian leadership.
Overnight, the military said it targeted about 150 of the sites Gaza
gunmen use to fire rockets at Israel, as well as ammunition warehouses,
bringing to 450 the number of sites struck since the operation began
Wednesday.
The new propaganda: Israel, Hamas take war to Twitter in Gaza conflict
Hamas chief killed
The latest upsurge of violence in the long-running conflict began Wednesday
when
Israel killed Hamas' military mastermind, Ahmed Jabari, in a
precision airstrike on his car. Israel then began shelling Gaza from land,
air and sea.
Israel says its offensive was in response to
increasing missile salvos from Gaza. Its bombing has not yet reached the
saturation level seen before it last invaded Gaza in 2008, but Israeli
officials have said a ground assault remains possible.
“We are going to continue hitting Hamas hard and we will continue to
strike hard at the missiles targeted at Central and South Israel,"
Netanyahu wrote Friday on Twitter.
An Israeli ground offensive could be costly to both sides. In the last Gaza war, Israel devastated parts of the territory, setting back Hamas' fighting capabilities. But Israel also payed the price of increasing diplomatic isolation because of a civilian death toll numbering in the hundreds.
This week’s fighting has widened the instability gripping the region, further straining Israel-Egypt relations.
TEL AVIV — With rockets landing on the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Friday and the Egyptian prime minister making a solidarity visit to Gaza, the accelerating conflict between Israel and Hamas — reminiscent in many ways of so many previous battles — has the makings of a new kind of Israeli-Palestinian face-off.
An Israeli soldier kissed his girlfriend in Tel Aviv on Friday as other soldiers waited on a bus. The military has been allowed to call up 75,000 reservists if needed.
The combination of longer-range and far deadlier rockets in the hands of more radicalized Palestinians, the arrival in Gaza and Sinai from North Africa of other militants pressuring Hamas to fight more, and the growing tide of anti-Israel fury in a region where authoritarian rulers have been replaced by Islamists means that Israel is engaging in this conflict with a different set of challenges.
The Middle East of 2012 is not what it was
in late 2008, the last time Israel mounted a military invasion to
reduce the rocket threat from Gaza. Many analysts and diplomats
outside Israel say the country today needs a different approach to
Hamas and the Palestinians based more on acknowledging historic
grievances and shifting alliances.
“As long as the crime of dispossession and
refugeehood that was committed against the Palestinian people in
1947-48 is not redressed through a peaceful and just negotiation
that satisfies the legitimate rights of both sides, we will continue
to see enhancements in both the determination and the capabilities
of Palestinian fighters — as has been the case since the 1930s, in
fact,” Rami G. Khouri, a professor at the American University of
Beirut, wrote in
an online column. “Only stupid or ideologically maniacal
Zionists fail to come to terms with this fact.”
But the government in Israel and the vast
majority of its people have drawn a very different conclusion. Their
dangerous neighborhood is growing still more dangerous, they agree.
That means not concessions, but being tougher in pursuit of
deterrence, and abandoning illusions that a Jewish state will ever
be broadly accepted here.
“There is a theory, which I believe, that
Hamas doesn’t want a peaceful solution and only wants to keep the
conflict going forever until somehow in their dream they will have
all of Israel,” Eitan Ben Eliyahu, a former leader of the Israeli
Air Force, said in a telephone briefing. “There is a good chance we
will go into Gaza on the ground again.”
What is striking in listening to the
Israelis discuss their predicament is how similar the debate sounds
to so many previous ones, despite the changed geopolitical
circumstances. In most minds here, the changes do not demand a new
strategy, simply a redoubled old one.
The operative metaphor is often described
as “cutting the grass,” meaning a task that must be performed
regularly and has no end. There is no solution to security
challenges, officials here say, only delays and deterrence. That is
why the idea of one day attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, even
though such an attack would set the nuclear program back only two
years, is widely discussed as a reasonable option. That is why
frequent raids in the West Bank and surveillance flights over
Lebanon never stop.
And that is why this week’s operation in
Gaza is widely viewed as having been inevitable, another painful but
necessary maintenance operation that, officials here say, will
doubtless not be the last.
There are also those who believe that the
regional upheavals are improving Israel’s ability to carry out
deterrence. One retired general who remains close to the military
and who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that with Syria
torn apart by civil war, Hezbollah in Lebanon discredited because of
its support for the Syrian government, and Egypt so weakened
economically, Israel should not worry about anything but protecting
its civilians.
“Should we let our civilians be bombed
because the Arab world is in trouble?” he asked.
So much was happening elsewhere in the
region — the Egyptian and Libyan revolutions, the Syrian civil war,
dramatic changes in Yemen and elections in Tunisia — that a few
rockets a day that sent tens of thousands of Israeli civilians into
bomb shelters drew little attention. But in the Israeli view, the
necessity of a Gaza operation has been growing steadily throughout
the Arab Spring turmoil.
In 2009, after the Israeli invasion pushed
Hamas back and killed about 1,400 people in Gaza, 200 rockets hit
Israel. The same was true in 2010. But last year the number rose to
600, and before this week the number this year was 700, according to
the Israeli military. The problem went beyond rockets to mines
planted near the border aimed at Israeli military jeeps and the
digging of explosive-filled tunnels.
“In 2008 we managed to minimize rocket
fire from Gaza significantly,” said Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a
military spokeswoman. “We started that year with 100 rockets a week
and ended it with two a week. We were able to give people in our
south two to three years. But the grass has grown, and other things
have as well. Different jihadist ideologies have found their way
into Gaza, including quite a few terrorist organizations. More
weapons have come in, including the Fajr-5, which is Iranian made
and can hit Tel Aviv. That puts nearly our entire population in
range. So we reached a point where we cannot act with restraint any
longer.”
Gazans see events in a very different
light. The problem, they say, comes from Israel: Israeli drones fill
the Gazan skies, Israeli gunboats strafe their waters, Palestinian
militants are shot at from the air, and the Gaza border areas are
declared off limits by Israel with the risk of death from Israeli
gunfire.
But there is little dissent in Israel
about the Gaza policy. This week leaders of the leftist opposition
praised the
assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, the Hamas military commander,
on Wednesday. He is viewed here as the equivalent of Osama bin
Laden. The operation could go on for many days before there is any
real dissent.
The question here, nonetheless, is whether
the changed regional circumstances will make it harder to “cut the
grass” in Gaza this time and get out. A former top official who was
actively involved in the last Gaza war and who spoke on the
condition of anonymity said it looked to him as if Hamas would not
back down as easily this time.
“They will not stop until enough Israelis are killed or injured to create a sense of equality or balance,” he said. “If a rocket falls in the middle of Tel Aviv, that will be a major success. But this government will go back at them hard. I don’t see this ending in the next day or two.”
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AP | By JOSEF FEDERMAN Posted: 11/16/2012 10:15 am EST
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian militants fired a rocket aimed at Jerusalem on Friday, setting off air raid sirens throughout the city and opening a new front in three days of fierce fighting between Israel and armed groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli campaign has been limited to airstrikes so far. But military officials say they are considering expanding it to a ground campaign.
The Israeli military seemed to be edging closer to a ground invasion of Gaza on Friday, saying forces were "on standby" and "ready to enter should it be decided that a ground operation is necessary," according to the New York Times.
Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, said the military had called 16,000 reservists to duty on Friday as it geared up for a possible ground offensive.
She said the army had authority to draft an additional 14,000 soldiers. She would not say where the troops were deployed.
As air-raid sirens went off in Jerusalem, witnesses said they saw a stream of smoke in Mevasseret Zion, a Jerusalem suburb.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket landed in an open area near Gush Ezion, a collection of Jewish settlements in the West Bank southeast of the city.
An attack on Israel's self-declared capital marks a major escalation by Gaza militants, both for its symbolism and its distance from the Palestinian territory.
Located roughly 75 kilometers (50 miles) away from the Gaza border, Jerusalem had been thought to be beyond the range of Gaza rocket squads.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Hamas militant wing, said the group had fired a long-range rocket at Jerusalem.
"We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises," he said. Hamas officials said the rocket was a homemade "M-75" rocket, a weapon that has never been fired before.
It also marks a bit of a gamble for the militants. Gush Ezion is close to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and just a few kilometers (miles) from the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest sites. Jews call the compound the Temple Mount because of the biblical Jewish temples that once stood there.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Jerusalem and nearby areas of the West Bank.
Militants already have fired rockets into the southern outskirts of Tel Aviv, another unprecedented achievement, on Thursday. The rocket attacks have not hurt anyone in the bustling metropolis, but have caused panic and jitters.
Just a few years ago, Palestinian rockets were limited to crude, homemade devices manufactured in Gaza. But in recent years, Hamas and other armed groups have smuggled in sophisticated, longer-range rockets from Iran and Libya, which has been flush with weapons since Moammar Gadhafi was ousted last year. Most of the rockets do not have guided systems, limiting their accuracy, though Israeli officials believe the militants may have a small number of guided missiles that have not yet been deployed.
The strike occurred on the third day of an Israeli offensive in Gaza meant to halt rocket fire from the crowded seaside strip. Israel began the offensive Wednesday by assassinating Hamas' military chief and striking dozens of rocket launchers. But militants have continued to rain rockets across Israel.
The military spokeswoman said no decision has been made on whether to send ground troops or how long the Israeli offensive will last. Leibovich said all options are open, "including a ground operation."
Along the border Friday, tanks, armored vehicles and military bulldozers were parked in neat rows. Soldiers milled about, while buses filled with soldiers moved in the area.
Hamas militants have vowed to resist the Israeli offensive. They received a boost of solidarity on Friday with a visit by Egypt's prime minister, Hesham Kandil, who called on Israel to end its operation.
In all, 23 Palestinians have been killed, including 11 civilians, according to Gaza health officials, and 250 people wounded. Three Israelis were killed when a rocket hit an apartment building in southern Israel.
FIRST PHOTOS
ACCORDING TO NEWS REPORTS, THIS WAS THE CAR OF THE HAMAS LEADER WHO WAS ASSASSINATED
ACCORDING TO NEWS REPORTS THIS WAS THE PLANNED ASSASSINATION OF THE HAMAS LEADER.