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June 28, 2006
Gaza Incursion Gains Ground
The IDF gained important tactical positions east of Rafah this morning, allowing Israel to control more of the southern border of Gaza, while it also captured an airstrip in Dahaniyeh and bombed northern Gaza where Palestinian terrorists often launch Kassam rockets into Israel. The manuevers show that the IDF has taken the time to think its incursion through for strategic as well as tactical purposes, cutting off the escape routes from Gaza into Egypt:
Earlier in the day, the IDF took control of the abandoned airport in Dahaniyeh and the town of Shuka in southern Gaza in a move to cement their foothold in areas east of Rafah, a city on the Egyptian border.
The area of Dahaniyeh represents a strategic control and observation point over the area of Rafah and the southern Gaza Strip. So far there has been one incident of gunfire and anti-tank missile fire at the forces, but no injuries or damage were reported. ...
Armored personnel carriers were stationed outside northern Gaza, and were expected to move in later in the day.
The Israelis appear to have a much larger invasion planned than first thought. Originally, pundits surmised that the IDF had wanted to just find their kidnapped soldier, and assumed that their intel placed him in or around Rafah. However, if the Jerusalam Post has its information correct, the IDF will hit Gaza in the center and the north once Israel has the southern egress routes into Egypt sealed off -- effectively trapping Palestinian fighters between the IDF and the Mediterranean.
The Israelis appear serious this time about delivering the war for which the Palestinians voted when they elected Hamas to govern them. Hamas certainly has given them the provocation the voters wanted by attacking into Israel and kidnapping Gilad Shalit. With Gaza no longer occupied by Israel, it gives them a much easier target to attack on this invasion; the Palestinians no longer have the settlements as a bargaining chip against full-scale war.
This incursion comes as the world media reports that Hamas has agreed to an "implicit recognition" of Israel, but the details show that it does no such thing:
The military moves came as Hamas executed a dramatic shift in policy to reach an agreement that implicitly recognises Israel. The militant Palestinian groups U-turn could see the Hamas-led Government anathema to Israel and the West replaced within weeks by a national unity coalition.
As the military wing of Hamas took joint responsibility for kidnapping the Israeli soldier, its political wing was ending its power struggle with Mr Abbas by apparently accepting a national unity plan that the President had threatened to put to a referendum. ...
Hamas has long advocated the destruction of Israel, but the plan calls for a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza territories captured by Israel in 1967 implicitly recognising Israels existence in the rest of historic Palestine.
However, the original document, drawn up by Palestinian prisoners from all factions, does not mention a two-state solution or Israels right to exist. Its already ambiguous language may also have been watered down in recent talks.
The document that Hamas has apparently accepted does not implicitly recognize Israel, nor does it limit resistance to the "Zionist enemy" to the post-1967 territories, as some had reported earlier. As I wrote last week, the NCD does nothing but propose that all factions unite in their opposition to Israel rather than continue to fight each other. It delegitimizes any effort to find peace by tying all groups into one unit to fight Israel under one command. With Hamas' efforts this week to force military action, we can see exactly what purpose the NCD serves now.
Israel considers Hamas an enemy at war, and have announced that Hamas leaders involved in the attack and kidnapping of at least Gilad Shalit will be a fair target. That includes Khalid Mashaal, who reportedly ran the abduction mission from his offices in Syria:
Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Wednesday that Hamas's Syria-based leader, Khaled Mashaal, is a target for assassination for ordering the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip.
"He is definitely in our sights ... he is a target," Ramon told Army Radio. "Khaled Mashaal, as some who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target."
Interior Minister and former Shin Bet head Avi Dichter said that the only reason Mashaal is not in an Israeli jail is that Israel, as an enlightened nation, has placed certain restrictions upon itself.
Well, that's not entirely the reason. The Mossad actually attempted an assassination once before, injecting Mashaal with poison in Jordan, but got caught before Mashaal died. King Hussein of Jordan refused to release the agents until Israel gave up the antidote, which it did and Mashaal survived. Netanyahu also released Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Hamas spiritual leader, as part of the deal. The IDF caught up to Yassin seven years later in 2004, when they killed him in a 2004 Gaza air strike.
If the IDF gets another shot at Mashaal, pardoning the pun, you can be sure they will take it.
Posted by Captain Ed at June 28, 2006 06:20 AM
I agree. It's being liveblogged here:dmp said:God be with Israel.
Israelis turn up heat on Hamas, Assad
By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer 35 minutes ago
Israel turned up the pressure on Palestinian militants to release a captive soldier Wednesday, sending its warplanes to bomb a Hamas training camp after knocking out electricity and water supplies for most of the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. Also, Israel said its warplanes flew over the home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a message aimed at pressuring him to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.
The officials said four warplanes flew over a residence belonging to Assad in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said Assad was home at the time.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the Gaza offensive would not secure the soldier's release. Hamas-affiliated militants holding the hostage previously made that demand, but this was the first time the government did.
Tensions escalated Wednesday evening as the military fired artillery near Gaza City the first time Israel has targeted that area during the offensive. There were no reports of injuries or damage, and the army said it was testing artillery units and had not fired at a specific target.
Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments, preparing for a major strike after Israel sent in troops and tanks and bombarded bridges and a power station. Warplanes fired missiles in northern and southern Gaza.
No casualties have been reported since the offensive began early Wednesday.
Residents of northern Gaza, preparing for what they feared could be a long military operation, stocked up on food, candles and batteries for radios as a minister warned of a "humanitarian crisis."
The White House continued pressuring Hamas, saying it was the responsibility of the Palestinian government to "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the United States also urged Israel to show restraint.
"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
It was Israel's first ground offensive since pulling its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not balk at "extreme action" to bring Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, home but did not intend to reoccupy Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity," and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.
Meanwhile, concerns about the fate of a missing West Bank settler grew after militants claiming to hold him displayed what they said was a copy of his identification card.
Also, a group affiliated with Abbas' Fatah party claimed to hold a third Israeli and threatened to attack an unspecified Israeli embassy within days.
Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of Rafah overnight under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said. Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman, said troops moved a mile inside the coastal strip.
He said the army was prepared for a long operation, and "everything is on the table."
Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said. The station's three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames.
Wasfi Kabha, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, said the Israeli attacks were creating a "humanitarian crisis."
"They hit the bridges, they hit the power station, so there will be a problem in water supply and health services," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Areas in northern Gaza that receive electricity from Israel still had power, and generators relieved darkness in other places.
The Israeli military said three bridges were attacked "to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier." Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.
Witnesses reported heavy artillery shelling near the long-closed Gaza airport outside of Rafah. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows.
Fighter jets repeatedly fired missiles at open fields in northern and southern Gaza in a show of force, the military said. Two missiles hit empty Hamas training camps, witnesses said. Separately, Israel attacked a rocket-making factory in the area.
"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said. "All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days.
"We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home."
The militants who seized Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about Shalit.
Olmert repeated that Israel will not negotiate with militants.
Later, the Palestinian Information Ministry said it was "natural logic" to carry out a prisoner exchange.
"Previous Israeli governments have done so ... and this is what other countries do in conflict situations," the statement said.
High-ranking Hamas officials in exile also demanded a prisoner exchange. If Israelis do not negotiate a swap, Palestinians militants will conclude "that they should capture more soldiers," Hamas' representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told The Associated Press.
"The message for the resistance is to kill soldiers, even if they have the opportunity to capture them," he said.
Shalit was captured Sunday during an attack on a southern Israeli military post by militants affiliated with the Palestinians' ruling Hamas party. Israel believes the group's Syria-based leaders ordered the operation.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Hamas' Syria-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, was "not immune" from Israeli reprisal.
"Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target," Ramon told Army Radio. The station interpreted his comments as meaning Mashaal was a target for assassination.
Israel tried to kill Mashaal in a botched attempt in Jordan in 1997. Two Mossad agents injected Mashaal with poison but were caught. As Mashaal lay dying in a Jordanian hospital, King Hussein forced Israel to provide the antidote in return for releasing the Mossad agents.
Ramon told Israel Radio in a separate interview that he believed diplomacy had run its course.
Abbas deplored the Israeli invasion, calling it "collective punishment and a crime against humanity," and he urged the United States and other international negotiators to intervene, according to a statement.
An aide said Abbas called Syrian President Bashar Assad to ask him to persuade Mashaal to free the soldier. Assad promised to do so, the aide said on condition of anonymity because he was discussing private talks.
Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer of Hamas said his government, too, was trying to resolve the situation diplomatically.
"We call for an immediate halt to the invasion, and urge that the soldier's life be spared," Shaer said.
The normally bustling streets in southern Gaza, where the invasion was launched, were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt Gaza's main link to the outside world has been closed since Sunday.
Israeli troops, backed by tanks, took over the Gaza airport. Dozens of people living near the airport left their homes, seeking sanctuary in nearby Rafah.
A small grocery near the airport was open, but no one was inside except owner Allah Abu Jazr.
"We want the soldier to return home, just as we want our prisoners to come home," Abu Jazr, 45, said.
Militants said they fired rockets early Wednesday at several Israeli targets, including Nahal Oz, the Israeli forces' staging area.
Shalit's abduction has threatened to turn devastated relations between Israel and the Hamas-led government into all-out war. Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority after winning parliamentary elections in January and has been under international pressure to renounce violence and recognize Israel.
Complicating matters was a new claim by the Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday's assault, that it had also kidnapped a Jewish settler, 18-year-old Eliahu Asheri, in the West Bank.
Outside a Gaza City mosque, PRC militants displayed what they said was a copy of Asheri's ID card and reiterated threats to kill him if Israel did not end the invasion.
The group also warned that it had just begun its campaign to seize soldiers.
"The operation of kidnapping soldiers has started and is in a countdown," spokesman Mohammed Abdel Al said.
Separately, a statement obtained by the AP and signed by Abu Fouad, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Gaza, said the group was holding an unidentified 62-year-old Israeli from Rishon Lezion.
The statement said the man was kidnapped Monday and that more evidence would be released later.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police had a missing persons report concerning a man identified as Noah Moskovitch.
In a separate statement, Al Aqsa said it planned to attack an unspecified Israeli embassy soon.
The White House continued pressuring Hamas, saying it was the responsibility of the Palestinian government to "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the United States also urged Israel to show restraint.
"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
