Sunday, December 27, 2009

Israeli escalation?

The news media are reporting that IDF forces killed 6 Palestinians on the West Bank on Saturday, and Palestinian sources are labelling this an Israeli escalation. But, this is not correct, three were killed on the West Bank in Nablus and three near the border in Gaza in seperate incidents.
The three killed in Nablus were responsible for the shooting death of Rabbi Meir Chai on Thursday, probably timed to coincide with the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. IDF forces tracked the perpetrators to a house in Nablus that is a center of Fatah-Tanzim activities, and surrounded it and called on them to surrender. Fire was exchanged and in the shooting the three terrorists were killed. The men were identified as Raed Sukarji (38), Ghassan Abu Sharkh (39), and Anan Subih (40). The wife of one of them was wounded and she was later helicoptered to hospital. No IDF soldiers were injured and a cache of weapons was found in the house. None of the media accounts I have seen so far mention the prior shooting of the Israeli near Nablus as the cause of this reaction.
The three killed near the Gaza border with Israel were armed terrorists attempting to inflitrate across the border. They were detected and shot at, then a helicopeter gunship was called in and they were killed. The two incidents have nothing to do with each other, except perhaps being attempts by both Hamas and Fatah to commemorate the start of Operation Cast Lead with attacks. By doing so they were trying to send a message of militancy to their Palestinian constituencies. This had nothing to do with an Israeli escalation, but does show Israel's deterrent capability.

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