Two Qassam missiles launched Tuesday after IDF ground action backed by helicopter killed 3 Jihad Islami missile crewmen and a Fatah Force 17 gunman overnight at Beit Lahiya
The missiles landed outside Kibbutz Carmieh and the Zikkim military base south of Ashkelon. Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz vowed to continue attacks until the Palestinian missile assault ends. Two more Palestinians killed, three wounded in two further Israeli counter-terror operations on the West Bank during 23 arrests.
There were no Israeli casualties.
debkafile‘s military sources report: The IDF was bound to embark on its first ground operation since the September disengagement and hit back against the Palestinians for launching Qassam missiles Monday night against the Nahal Oz military base and southern Ashkelon, 24 hours after punishing Hizballah in southern Lebanon for its Katyusha rocket attacks on the Mt. Meron early warning station and the inhabitants of northern Israel.
debkafile‘s military sources report: The IDF was bound to strike back against the Palestinians for launching Qassam missiles Monday night against its Nahal Oz base and southern Ashkelon, 24 hours after punishing Hizballah in southern Lebanon for its Katyusha rocket attacks on the Mt. Meron early warning station and the inhabitants of northern Israel.
There is a strong connecting link between the troubled borders in the north and the south: Iran-trained Hizballah officers and instructors are busy stirring up aggression against Israel in both sectors, arming the Lebanese Shiite group and the Palestinians alike with weapons and the technology for upgrading their aim and fire power.
Prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Amir Peretz appreciate that the failure to strike back across the two borders would have blunted the deterrent effect of the first and allowed violence on both to escalate. The Palestinian threat is now coordinated and integrated in Tehran’s offensive through the Revolutionary Guards and Hizballah present in both S. Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli leaders realize that the bombardments of the last two days are the first round of this combined offensive. The second round is still to come with Israel braced for more Iranian-Hizballah-Palestinian war initiatives.
The IDF, having stepped back into the Gaza Strip, will have to keep up the day-to-day grind of eradicating terrorist strongholds there, by the same method of in-and-out sorties as pursued on the West Bank. This is a long-term battle requiring substantial Israeli forces.