A Hamas spokesman praised Tuesday's rocket attack on an Israeli army base, calling it a "victory from God." "We consider this a victory from God for the resistance," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Hamas radio. "We consider the resistance as the legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves and restore their rights."
The rocket strike, which wounded 69 IDF soldiers, was followed by a mortar barrage on the Gaza border. The Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attacks. Although Hamas was not directly involved, Israel has said it holds the group responsible for attacks out of Gaza because it rules the area.
Although nobody was wounded in the latest incident, the attack will undoubtedly add to the calls for action which reached fervor pitch following the earlier Kassam strike. Yet despite these calls, predictions are that the IDF will still hold back from launching a large scale operation in the Gaza Strip. According to reports, the hesitancy is in large part due to the upcoming peace summit in Washington, mounting tensions along the northern border, and the fact that Sderot remains largely unprotected. Defense officials are, however, calling on the political echelon to allow the IDF to deepen their operations in Gaza. At the moment the army is allowed to penetrate up to 2 km into Palestinian territory from the security fence.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi were meeting late Tuesday morning to discuss possible military responses to the attacks.
Sixty-nine soldiers were wounded, one of them critically and three more seriously, after one of two Kassam rockets fired by Palestinians on Monday night landed in an IDF basic training camp. On Tuesday morning, another rocket was fired into Israel, landing in a Sha'ar Hanegev Council community causing no casualties.
The Gaza Strip is not chalk full of innocent or moderate Palestinians nor is it a breeding ground of peaceniks. I am not saying they don’t exist over six years old but the numbers certainly hover below underwhelming. Hamas did not change or misrepresent the type of genocidal organization it is for the sake of winning the election. The Hamas Charter was not changed or was deliberately concealed during the election process. Hamas did not lie or misrepresent its political aims. Everyone single Palestinian who voted for Hamas knew exactly the kind of organization Hamas represented, and then, still cast their vote for them.
Islamic Jihad does not operate independently from Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I cannot imagine the individual who is equally naïve and stupid enough to believe that it does. Islamic Jihad is one of the smallest Palestinian terror fractions. It has an almost non-existent operating budget and receives the bulk of funds and supplies from the larger Palestinian terror organization. Its primary role is to take credit for operations while allowing the larger networks the plausible deniability.
Every day in Sderot there are Israeli school children who are afraid to go to school and rightly so. Jewish school children are being deliberately targeted by rockets several times a week with the complete approval of the political infrastructure of the Hamas led Gaza Strip government. Make no mistake, Islamic Jihad could not fire a single kassam without the tangible and material support of the Hamas run Gaza Strip government. For the Hamas run Gaza Strip government to claim the injuring of 69 Israeli soldiers in Israel proper ‘a victory from God’ is almost, but not quite, beyond the pale. What is really beyond the pale is the fact the Olmert Administration is more afraid of jeopardizing the ‘peace process’ than protecting its citizenry.
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