Israel Keeps Pressure on Terrorist Groups
By Tzippe Barrow
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
May 24, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - It has been a week since the Israel Defense Forces switched from its primarily defensive posture toward Palestinian Kassam rocket attacks to "defense through offense," as one military official put it.
Both in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank"), the IDF has launched a multi-pronged approach against Palestinian terror groups.
Late Wednesday night, pinpoint air strikes demolished four money exchanging offices in Gaza City. According to Israeli intelligence, the shops were used to convert currency from Iran, Syria and Lebanon earmarked for Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups. Palestinian sources reported that three people were lightly wounded in the strikes, and parts of the city lost electricity temporarily.
The IDF also targeted weapons workshops in Gaza City and Jebaliya, reporting that secondary explosions confirmed that the sites warehoused considerable ammunition. Six Palestinians were wounded in Jebaliya, including a teenager and a pregnant woman.
Earlier Wednesday, IDF troops conducted searches of several homes on the outskirts of Khan Younis, located near the border with Israel in southern Gaza. Troops briefly detained seven members of one family for questioning.
Before leaving the area, soldiers distributed handwritten notes, warning residents that homes used for rocket launching were vulnerable for demolition.
Tuesday and Wednesday, 13 Kassams landed in Israel. On Wednesday night, a rocket landed in an open area within Sderot, while two others exploded in fields just outside the city limits. One rocket hit a stable in a nearby farming community, killing a mare in foal.
Abbas and Haniyeh Meet in Gaza
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met in Gaza Wednesday night to discuss ways of renewing the now-defunct cease-fire with Israel.
While the two factions called on Israel to halt its operations in Gaza, as well as Judea and Samaria, they disagreed on ending rocket attacks. The meeting ended without progress.
Meanwhile, the truce reached last weekend between them is far from solid. Late Wednesday night, Hamas gunmen targeted the home of senior Fatah official Maher Miqdad, wounding two of his bodyguards.
Stopping the Rockets
A military source, quoted by YNet news service, said a prolonged offensive is the only way to combat the terror groups behind the rocket assault against Israel.
"There is no doubt that Hamas is not behaving as it did a week ago," said the official. "The fact that the organization was targeted many times and the fact that they have several dozen casualties have compelled them to operate differently. The more we persist with our actions, the more results we will see," he said.
"When we hit the organization hard -- a deterrent that will work -- then we'll see the decision to stop the rockets. We need to bring them to the point at which they need to make that decision, and we are not there yet," he said.
Judea and Samaria
Arresting leaders of terror groups is another facet of the IDF's multi-pronged offensive to bring an end to the rocket attacks on Israel. On Wednesday night, for the first time since the June 2006 kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit from an outpost on the Gaza border, IDF troops arrested 33 Hamas and Islamic Jihad officials in several PA-controlled cities.
The mayors of Nablus and Kalkilya, local heads of municipalities, and members of the PA legislature, including the education minister, were among those taken into custody.
Sources: YNet, The Jerusalem Post, The Associated Press
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