Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ceasefire?

Notwithstanding the wishful thinking and the biased reporting, there has been no real ceasefire from the Palestinian side in Gaza since it was supposedly initiated some months ago.
Not only have there been continuous firings of Kassam rockets into southern Israel, but there have been numerous and constant attempts to carry out terrorist attacks, including car bombs and suicide bombs from both Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian Islamic Jihad never accepted the ceasefire even in Gaza, and since there is no ceasefire on the West Bank, the IDF has continued to attack terrorists, their hideouts and workshops there.
On Saturday four rockets hit the Negev town of Sderot and one house was severely damaged, although the family living there luckily escaped injury (they suffered from shock). In response Israel continues to fire back at the teams of rocket launchers on the Palestinian side. On Sunday, at least seven rockets and mortars were fired into Israel in a major escalation that was claimed by all three major terrorist groups, including Hamas. This continued on Monday, Independence Day, and they were reportedly intending to kidnap another IDF soldier under cover of this onslaught. It was reminiscent of Hizbollah's actions last year that precipitated the war in Lebanon. IDF counter-attacks were accurate and killed several terrorists. The IDF now has long range cameras that can pick up the terrorists from long distances, and they have computerized guns that are accurate over long ranges. A Hamas spokesman for the PA Unity Government stated that Israel had killed nine Palestinians over the weekend and they were therefore cancelling the (nonexistent) ceasefire.
But, Israel had been exercising restraint in Gaza, not hitting back with major force. Now the Israeli Government has announced that the ceasefire that it was unilaterally keeping will be ended, and the IDF will take whatever action is necessary to stop these attacks. Somewhat mysteriously the Palestinian side issued press statements yesterday that IDF tanks were entering Gaza and that the IAF had dropped leaflets warning residents that they would be attacking.
The Israel Govt. denied these reports, but stated that since Hamas is both the terrorist organization carrying out the attacks and the Government of the PA, they would have to take appropriate action against the PA. So it is possible that things will hot up in Gaza now that the pretense of a ceasefire has been abandoned by both sides. But, while Hamas is training an army of 10,000 men with Iranian support on the ruins of former Israeli settlements in Gaza, the Israeli cabinet in its meeting today decided to adopt only measured responses, i.e. targeted killings of rocket launchers and leading terrorists, not a major incursion into Gaza. However, PM Olmert announced that Hamas Government leaders are not exempt from attack.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home