For the second time in a week,
According to the police, there were no reported casualties in the latest incident although warning signs could be heard in the Northern part of
A few days ago, the same event happened but officials of both countries downplayed the incident as an action done by smaller Palestinian groups in
In 2006,
A Israeli police spokesman stated that three rockets hit
According to witnesses,
The condition of the Palestinians has worsened recently as an aid agency of the United Nations suspended its operations following the death of two of its drivers.
The Israeli forces are still fighting heavily with the Hamas militants.
The Red Cross has criticized
While the Palestinian civilians are finding ways to save themselves from the heavy attacks and offensives, there is still no clear sign that a ceasefire agreement will happen immediately.
The Israeli forces are determined to chase the militants, and so are the latter. In fact they declared lately that they are going to bring the war against
The UN,
Above: Rocket attacks from Hamas
Only within a few hours of the IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Hamas had already declared victory.
And as an exclamation point of sorts, the Hamas Qassam rockets were launched (like pictured above from Gaza) once again at nearby Israeli towns as if nothing had happened; as if saying that after two days of killing more than 60 Palestinians, the Israelis still had failed to destroy the rocket launchers.
“I saw that people in Hamas said it was a victory for Hamas, and so I’d like to publicly wish them many more such victories,” said Mark Regev of the Israeli government. “I am 100% confident that this operation was successful in applying pressure on Hamas’ leadership — pressure that hurts.”
He adds that the latest incursion was not the last and that there was “no quick fix” for the problem.
Many believe that the Qassams were used to provoke Israeli incursions such as this; and to keep the revolution and Hamas in power.
“I don’t think they produce any result,” says one of the refugees. “The negatives of it are much greater than the positives.”
Another Fatah man had this to say of Hamas: “They’re trafficking in bodies and souls. Just so they can tell the media, ‘We have this many martyrs.’”
In the other side of the spectrum another refugee man had this to say about the Qassams: “A person must defend his dignity by any means. If Israel committed to international agreements, and dealt with us like human beings, the rockets would stop.”
According to him the long-term goal of the Qassams was to show Israel the hopelessness of a military solution. And once Israel gives up on the fighting, then negotiations will follow. And Palestinians can go back to their homes in Israel.
Hamas leaders are so in love with the Qassams. Only in recent days did they add more powerful and long-range rockets called Grads. To them, it’s the only form of self-defense they have against the powerful US military backed IDF. Pictured below is how Hamas have used a variety of rockets and launchers in their campaigns.
Below: Hamas soldier with their rockets
“This is the only option we have. I wish we had F-16s and Apache helicopters,” said Ahmed Younis, a consultant to Ismail Haniyeh. “(The goal is) to make the Israelis bleed the same way we are bleeding.”
So far, the Qassams have killed “only” 13 civilians in the last seven years; a measly number compared to the hundreds of Palestinians who have died in each IDF attack. But the main thing is that the rockets seem to come from everywhere and to say the least, had made it difficult for the Israelis to live a normal life.
Update:
Israel‘s air force struck anew and killed two more Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Apparently, one of those killed was a member of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad.
Islamic Jihad confirmed the statement saying their men had just launched seven rockets at the Israeli border town of Sderot. The air strike took down the rocket crew.
The Israeli govenment said its ground attacks had succeeded in stopping the rocket launches by Hamas.
To answer, Hamas denied that its fighters felt any kind of defeat.
“There is no decision to stop rocket firing,” said Qassam spokesman Abu Ubaida. “If there is a reduction in rocket firing, it is a tactical matter and not related to any political decision.”
Above: The Van Carrying Hamas
In their fight against terrorist activities in the region (giving priority to targets launching the Qassam rockets into Isreal), Israel Defense Forces reportedly killed at least 12 Palestinians on Wednesday from a barrage of air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Sadly the report also adds that three of these casualties were children, one of them a six month old baby.
The first missile attack was on a van (pictured above) carrying five Hamas militants. According to military intelligence, these men were planning to carry out an attack against Israel; they were also involved in firing Qassam rockets into Israel and planting explosives.
According to local residents, these five men underwent training outside the Strip (either in Syria or Iran). They returned home after the border was breached in January. Apparently they were men on a mission.
This was confirmed by Hamas: the dead included a senior engineer (involved in the production of the Qassam rockets) and a commander of a rocket-launching squad (that fires the Qassam at Israeli targets on a daily basis). Below is a picture of Qassam rockets displayed by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade (the armed branch of Hamas).
Below: Qassam Rockets
The next successful strike was against a Jabalya refugee camp where one militant was killed. Palestinians in the camp were also believed to have been firing Qassams into Israel.
Several hours later, another strike near Beit Hanun took place. This is where the children were reportedly killed.
Below: Palestinian boy who survived one of the air strikes.
“If this claim is true, it’s a good reason to ask what these children were doing in Qassam launching areas,” said an IDF official in defense. “We have seen in the past how terrorists use children to pick up launchers that were used to fire rockets into Israel.”
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for an end to the Qassam rocket attacks against Israel. In her meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, she condoned the action of Hamas against the Jewish state: “The issue is that the rocket attacks need to stop.”
She also stressed the situation with food supplies being limited due to the recent fighting. Rice said that “there needs to be due concern for the innocent people and the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
“I said once again to the prime minister, ‘We were all sorry about the death of the Israeli university student,’” said Rice in an interview, “and affirmed to him that we will continue to state clearly that the rocket attacks against Israel need to stop.”
The Israeli student being referred to by Rice was killed by a Qassam rocket fired towards Israel from the Strip. He was the first casualty of the rocket firings since May of last year. Hamas claimed responsibility for his death – adding that it was done to avenge the death of their militants – triggering the series of retaliatory attacks by the IDF.
Above: Israeli Airstrike
According to Hamas sources, an Israeli airstrike hammered down a Hamas base in Gaza, killing six militants and injuring ten more.
Israel Defense Forces confirmed they carried out the airstrike. This was not the first time in recent days that such an attack was made.
The move comes a day after a suicide bomber from Gaza attacked a crowded Israeli shopping mall. The bombing killed three and wounded several other civilians. The attack in Dimona was the first suicide bombing in Israel in a span of over a year. The military wings of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Fatah claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. According to intelligence reports, two Palestinians left Gaza across the recently breached border with Egypt and then entered Israel to carry out the suicide mission.
Hours later, an Israeli airstrike hit a chief leader of the Popular Resistance Committee’s militant wing – whom the Israelis blamed for helping bring down the securing wall between Gaza and Egypt. In an interview with CNN, Amr Qarmout described a week-long covert mission by Palestinian militants to bring down the border wall between Gaza and Egypt. The strike in Beit Lahya killed Qarmout.
Egypt’s security forces began closing off a section of its border with Gaza last February 3. Several days after, Palestinians started blasting holes in the said wall. Egypt has been under pressure by Israel and the United States to reseal the Rafah border to prevent the free flow of terrorists and weapons into Hamas-controlled Gaza.