A Record Day of Gaza Air Strikes
Gaza Strip Death Toll Nearing Seventy
Operation “Warm Winter” Continues in Strip
Stage I Complete in Two Gaza Strip Neighborhoods
Stage II IDF Search to Destroy Weapons now Under Way
Warm Winter IDF Operation continues on Qassam Launchers
Escalation in Launches is likely to Lead to Larger Scale Operation!
March 2, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The two articles which follow, from YNet News
and Arutz Sheva, give a description of the latest Operation Warm Weather Actions, as reported through Saturday night.
Begin YNet News Article
IDF gears up for Gaza op
Operation Warm Winter concludes first stage, as IDF forces target rocket firing grounds in Gaza over weekend. Second stage to include urban patrols on search-and-destroy mission for hidden weapons
Hanan Greenberg
March 2, 2008
Operation “Warm Winter” has finished its first stage – targeting terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip neighborhoods of Sajaiya and Jabalya, the IDF said Saturday.
The operation’s first stage also targeted ditches and similar places used as firing grounds by launchers, which were blown up. The second stage of the operation includes patrolling urban areas on a search-and-destroy mission – a hunt for hidden weapons.
Warm Winter’s weekend resulted in dozens of Palestinian fatalities; as the Israeli side suffered two fatalities, and seven casualties.
“The military operation against all ranks responsible for Qassams will continue. The gloves are off and we have no intention of sitting on the sidelines while rockets are being fired,” said a security source.
The massive strikes, he added, will continue and may even increase.
IDF forces in the field reported most of the Palestinian casualties were affiliated with Hamas. The IDF denied the Palestinians’ claims of mass casualties among innocent residents, citing only a few such incidents were known.
Hamas, said the IDF, often states false casualty claims in order to generate sympathy in the international community.
Senior defense establishment officials held a security briefing Saturday night in which it was decided that the IDF will continue its operation, as means to foil Hamas’ plan to have a large-scale ground incursion claim many innocent lives in the Strip.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin, Israel’ s military intelligence chief, Major-General Amo
s Yadlin and other officials attended the briefing.
“The operation in Gaza is ongoing,” said Barak. “Hamas will be held responsible… we are not happy Gaza residents
are hurt, but the responsibility lies with Hamas and those firing rockets. Our responsibility is to keep the residents of Sderot, Ashkelon and the Gaza vicinity communities safe, and that we will do.”
The IDF’s main concern continues to be Warm Winter’s final price tag: Hamas has fortified its strongholds and has snipers war-ready. “Overall, our forces are doing admirable work,” said the officers present at the briefing.
The IDF operation in Gaza is currently engaging combatants from the Givati Brigade, the Ninth Armor Battalion, IAF forces and Engineers Corps’ combatants; and while no large-scale operation was launched during the weekend, a lot depends on the coming developments. IDF officials did not rule out a possibility of the operation leading to yet another escalation, which in turn lead to a large-scale operation; but some believe several in-depth pinpoint operations may cause Hamas to rethink the ceasefire.
According to the IDF, some 130 have been fired at Israel since Wednesday.
Begin Arutz Sheva Article
Ashkelon Shelling Draws Record Day of IAF Air Strikes on Gaza
25 Adar 5768, 02 March 08 06:57
by Ezra HaLevi
(IsraelNN.com) Israel ratcheted up its air strikes in Gaza in response to another day of heavy rocket fire on Sderot and Katyusha missiles on the city of Ashkelon.
At least twenty people were killed in the air strikes.
PA reports say five children are among the dead but the kids were apparently involved in moving rocket launchers.
Late Thursday afternoon, an IAF air strike hit a Hamas position outside the home of Hamas PA chief Ismail Haniyeh, killing one and wounding four others. Haniyeh has gone into hiding and was not home at the time. A day earlier another air strike targeted his office.
Another IAF strike killed two Hamas terrorists – one of them a son of senior Hamas official Khalil al-Haya who oversaw a rocket-launching cell. Al-Haya visited the Gaza morgue and declared that he was proud his son had died for the cause. “I thank G-d for this gift.
This is the 10th member of my family to receive the honor of martyrdom,” he said.
An air strike Thursday night targeted terrorists in a vehicle in Khan Younis. The vehicle was marked as a PA electric company car and both terrorists inside were killed.
PA reports claimed the men were mere electric company workers.
In Gaza City, two Hamas terrorists, members of the group’s Executive Guard military force, were killed in a strike on a truck carrying Kassam rockets near the Shifa Hospital.
PA reports claimed the truck driven by the men in military-style uniforms was just carrying beverages.
Four teenagers were killed in an air strike
in the Jabalya area.
The young men were in an open area used for rocket-fire at the time. PA reports claim they were playing soccer.
Two other air strikes killed one Hamas terrorist each in northern Gaza. Two more strikes destroyed a large weapons warehouse and a Hamas training camp facility. Thursday morning a Gaza City strike killed a Hamas terrorist and two members of the Hizbullah-backed Popular Resistance Committee.
Israeli-Arab Teenage Terrorist Arrested in Jerusalem
The Shabak (General Security Service) released for publication the recent arrest of a 17-year-old female terrorist who intended to carry out a suicide bombing on a Jewish target in Israel. The girl enjoys Israeli citizenship and free passage to all Israeli and PA-controlled areas.
The girl held several meetings with leading Islamic Jihad terrorist coordinators, where she expressed her hatred of Jews and intentions to carry out a suicide bombing. Two Israeli-Arab members of Islamic Jihad from Jerusalem were arrested in the case as well.
The girl’s remand was extended Thursday by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court.
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