Hamas is trying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip by firing dozens of Kassam rockets at Israel, Palestinian leaders said Tuesday. It wants to drag Israel into the conflict to embarrass the Palestinian Authority and bring about its collapse, they added.
The allegations followed another day of bloody clashes between Fatah and Hamas militiamen in Gaza. At least 15 Palestinians were killed and 70 were wounded. Appeals by many Palestinians and Arab governments to the two parties fell on deaf ears as gunmen continued to fight street battles in different parts of the Gaza Strip. In addition, most Palestinians ignored appeals from hospitals for blood donations.
"The streets are completely deserted and people are afraid to walk out of their homes," said a local journalist. "This is a real war and people are really afraid." Hundreds of Fatah and PA policemen surrounded the Islamic University in Gaza City - a stronghold of Hamas - and threatened to storm the premises. Hamas warned that its men would turn the university complex into a "graveyard" for the attackers if they carried out their threat. Hamas militiamen fired several missiles at the headquarters of the PA General Intelligence Service in the northern Gaza Strip. The movement also threatened to destroy the offices of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza City.
Tuesday's clashes began when Hamas gunmen killed eight PA security officers near the Karni border crossing. A ninth officer was shot and killed by IDF soldiers as he tried to escape toward the border with Israel. Fatah and PA officials denounced the attack as a massacre and vowed to avenge the killings. Fatah legislator Jamal Abu Rub said Hamas and the IDF were responsible.
"The time has come for our people to realize that there is a huge conspiracy by mercenaries to destroy the Palestinian Authority," he said. "The security situation in the Gaza Strip is intolerable. We can't remain idle in the face of the atrocities committed by Hamas and Israel." Fatah's armed wing, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, warned Hamas against targeting Abbas and other senior PA figures. Leaflets distributed by the group in Gaza said Hamas would pay a heavy price if it dared to target PA leaders.
The innate problem with what passes for Palestinian culture is a lack of introspection and an inability to take any responsibility for any action. Even in the midst of a life and death power struggle Palestinians must find a way to blame the “other” - in this case a huge conspiracy by unnamed mercenaries, and of course, the ever obligatory shifting of blame to the Israelis for their very own uncivil slaughter in the streets of the Gaza Strip. Perhaps, if we give Jamal Abu Rub some more time and a soap box, he’ll be able to come up with a passable theory in which kidnapped Israeli soldier Cpl. Shalit is to blame. After all, Schalit is apparently the last Jew in Gaza.
Hamas, not content with simply slaughtering Fatah members in the streets of Gaza has upped the ante and opened a second front in a series of rocket barrages against the Israel state reports the Jerusalem Post.
With the security cabinet in the midst of reassessing policy toward the Gaza Strip, Tuesday night's Kassam barrage on Sderot was not expected to lead to any dramatic and immediate change in Israel's relative restraint, government officials said Tuesday evening.
Sderot came under attack Tuesday night and a barrage of 20 Kassam rockets wounded more than 18 people, one seriously. The rocket bombardment started towards the evening when a salvo of seven rockets slammed into the Negev city. One scored a direct hit on a home, leaving a 45-year-old woman seriously wounded and her son listed in moderate condition. A number of other people in the home sustained light injuries.
According to the officials, the Hamas attack was an attempt to draw attention away from their slaying of eight Fatah security officers earlier in the day and was meant to provoke Israel into invading Gaza, a move that would end the internal fighting and unite Fatah and Hamas against their common Israeli enemy.
And Israel, right on tune, again threatens a potentially harsh response if the kassam barrages does not cease, and to prove the seriousness of the Israeli intentions follows-up by launching a helicopter attack on an empty field in the Gaza Strip reports Ynet News.
IAF helicopters fired at the open fields in northern Gaza used by terror groups to launch the rocket attacks in an attempt to deter immediate future attacks.
Palestinian officials said no one was hurt.
Peretz intends to call a special security forces meeting later this evening, which IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenaz is supposed to attend in order to discuss possible military actions.
At the current juncture, no emergency security cabinet meeting is planned and both Olmert and Peretz seem willing to wait for the scheduled security cabinet next week in order to determine a plan for continued action.
Back in April, the current IDF Chief of Staff acknowledged the only way to effectively halt the rocket fire on Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip was a ground operation but the Kadima government continues to reject their top military man’s best advice. While I usually invoke the 48 hour rule with Debkafile reports and am not the biggest fan of their analysis, I think the Debka is right on the money for rationale behind the continued passivity of the Kadima government’s response to the continued siege on Sderot:
Lt. Gen. Keith G. Dayton, US security coordinator, sought and obtained instructions from Washington forbidding Israel to launch a ground offensive or any other major military operation in Gaza. To hold the Israeli government to this directive, the Bush administration will be sending a military delegation to Israel this week, to survey the damage caused by the Palestinian missiles and draw up guidelines for dealing with them.
Olmert’s assent to the US government determining what form the IDF’s response to the Palestinian missile blitz from Gaza should take has left Israel’s security and military establishments aghast and deeply troubled. They are furious at being summoned to a phony debate in the cabinet Sunday, purportedly for a hearing at long last of their plans to quell the threats building up from Gaza.
All of which begs the questions why has the Israeli state outsourced foreign policy and Israeli security to the Bush Administration, but more importantly - what’s the suffering quota/body count do the Israelis have to reach before the Bush Administration finally allows the Israeli government to act in their own self-defense?
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