ROCKETS ARE A
VIVID MIND STRESS!
OPERATION IS APPROVED!
MAJOR ROCKET TOLL IS FEAR!
NUMBER LAUNCHED EQUALS DEGREE
OF DEPRESSION, FEAR, & NERVOUS ANXIETY
GENERATED THROUGHOUT CIVILIAN POPULATION!
March 9, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Constant awareness that your number, or the number of one of your family members, may be riding on one of the rockets in a day’s regular barrage, is the major danger of the launched projectiles. The death toll per missile is very,
very low, but the psychological stress and mental fatigue is scarring the souls of Israelis within range of the Gaza Strip onslaught.
Begin NCTVI Excerpt
NATIONAL CENTER FOR TERROR VICTIMS IN ISRAEL
March 9, 2008
A total of 7,694 terrorist rockets have been fired out of the Gaza Strip at targets in Israel.
Begin DEBKAfile Article
Exclusive: Israeli cabinet okays Hamas, Jihad Islami targets for attack
March 5, 2008, 8:57 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Israel’s security cabinet approved Wednesday, March 5, a series of terrorist targets for early attacks as part of a sustained military offensive against escalated Palestinian attacks from Gaza on Israeli civilians.
Prime minister Ehud Olmert and defense minister Ehud Barak earlier obtained a quiet nod from US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice before she wound up her visit. These targets are revealed here by DEBKAfile:
1. Chiefs and senior officers of Hamas’ and Jihad Islami’s armed wings.
2. Their senior political officials in the Gaza strip, excluding prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, but including hard-line Mahmoud a-Zahar.
3. Hamas and Jihad institutions, including police stations.
These decisions were taken at the security cabinet’s first exhaustive review of Israel’s Gaza options.
DEBKAfile’s sources reveal the ministers considered demolishing urban districts in Gaza which serve as launching pads for missiles after evacuating their inhabitants. No final decision was reached on this.
Our military sources report that these strikes are expected to let loose a stepped up Hamas Grad rocket barrage against Ashkelon or even points further north, such as Ashdod, both important Mediterranean port cities.
Sderot, Netivot and Ofakim may also come under heavy missile attack and Hamas will make a supreme effort to bring off suicide attacks inside Israel.
Notwithstanding this expectation, the defense minister is determined to deny Hamas the ability to create a balance of deterrent with Israel. Therefore, the Israeli operation will persist even under heavy Hamas assaults.
In any case, the Palestinians launched a fresh onslaught on the heels of Rice’s departure after her talks with Palestinian and Israel leaders.
Five Katyusha rockets fired from Gaza at Ashkelon exploded on empty ground south of the city; four Qassam missiles were aimed at as Sderot and the Eshkol farming region, raising the total from Wednesday morning to eight.
Our military sources believe that the five rockets were deliberately aimed to explode harmlessly as a warning from Hamas of the violence in store if Israeli goes ahead with more military offensives. Military experts informed the cabinet that this was further proof that Hamas is now capable of precise targeting against specific locations.
Begin Excerpt from Haaretz Article
Cabinet to IDF: Continue operations to halt rocket fire
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
March 5, 2008
Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired seven rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday, as the security cabinet met in Jerusalem and voted to press onward with military operations against Hamas.
Three Qassam rockets slammed into open areas in the western Negev and two rockets struck near Zikkim. Two rockets exploded inside Palestinian territory. There were no reports of injuries or damage in any of the attacks. Two mortar shells were also fired at Israel.
The military operations will continue to target areas from which rockets
are fired as well as terrorist organizations and Hamas institutions in the Strip, and specific targets will be approved by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
The primary objectives of the operation are to end the rocket fire and other terror activity in Gaza, reduce arms smuggling through the Gaza-Egypt border in cooperation with Cairo, advance peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, undermine Hamas’ rule in the Strip, accelerate assistance to the home front, and avoid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The security cabinet decision, as conveyed by the Prime Minister’s Bureau, does not mention increased military operations or a major invasion of the Gaza Strip.
Olmert said the operations in the Strip would continue as long as Qassam rocket fire persists.
Begin Articles from Jerusalem Center for Public Information – Daily Alert
A Collection of Excerpts from Numerous Sources Follows
Excerpt 1 – Israel: Iran Behind Gaza Rocket Fire
Rebecca Anna Stoil and Sheera Claire Frenkel
(Jerusalem Post)
Iranian technology and intelligence was used by Palest
inian gunmen in Gaza in the recent fighting, a senior official in Military Intelligence told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday. “Iran’s influence and effect is very clear,” he said.
Terrorists fired at least 20 Iranian-assembled Katyusha rockets, he said. In the course of the recent IDF operation, the air force bombed the largest rocket factory in Gaza.
“Hamas was surprised by the weight and strength of the IDF operation in Gaza,” he noted.
Excerpt 2 – Iran’s Proxy in Gaza
Noah Pollak
(Commentary)
Iran has invested heavily in Palestinian terrorism in recent years, both financially and logistically.
Scores of millions of dollars have been funneled directly and indirectly to Hamas and other Palestinian groups and numerous Palestinian terrorists have been brought to Iran for advanced training, to the point where today Gaza exists for the Iranians as another forward operating base, a projection of power similar to but not as capable as Hizbullah.
The defeat of their proxy in Gaza would be a serious loss to Iran.
The writer is assistant editor of the Middle East Quarterly.
Excerpt 3 – Israel Says Hizbullah Has 30,000 Rockets
Edith M. Lederer
(AP/Washington Post)
Israel has said Hizbullah is rearming and has an arsenal that includes 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon, according to a report from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Excerpt 4 – Ashkelon Children Know Things Have Changed
Or Kashti
(Ha’aretz)
Harel Elementary School principal Ruti Ben-Walid stood at the school’s entrance Monday to welcome the children and hustle them inside. The Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command has issued orders prohibiting kindergarteners and elementary school students from going outside during the school day.
High-schoolers can go outside, but they must be within sprinting distance of a shelter.
Excerpt 5 – Pilotless Planes Emerge as Top Israeli Weapon in War with Hamas
Ibrahim Barzak and Aron Heller
(AP/MSNBC)
Palestinians say pilotless planes have been a major weapon in Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza.
Drones provide a cost effective alternative for armies to target enemies, without risking their own pilots’ lives while reducing civilian casualties in heavily populated areas.
Excerpt 6 – Israel’s War to Halt Palestinian Rocket Attacks
Dore Gold
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
The Kassam rocket threat started in 2001 and grew when the Palestinian Authority was under Fatah control. Even after the death of Arafat in November 2004, Kassam rocket fire from Gaza continued under the regime of Mahmoud Abbas. True, Abbas called on Palestinians to stop firing rockets into Israel in 2006, but on the ground, he and the Fatah leadership were either unwilling or unable to halt the Hamas attacks as they increased.
After Israel’s disengagement from Gaza, the number of confirmed rocket strikes against Israel increased by more than 500 percent. The 2005 Gaza disengagement provided Hamas with a sense of empowerment and self-confidence that led to a clear-cut escalation in the employment of the rocket capabilities that they had previously acquired.
The disengagement from Gaza led to the loss of Israeli control over the Philadelphi route between the Gaza Strip and Egyptian Sinai, allowing for a significant increase in the range and quantity of rockets in the Palestinian arsenal.
Israeli security forces recently discovered in the western Negev the remains of a new 175 mm.
rocket of Iranian origin that has a range of 26 kilometers. Israeli security sources are also concerned that Iran will try to smuggle its Fajr rockets to Gaza in the future.
A 45-kilometer-range Fajr 3, for example, could be smuggled in sections and assembled in Gaza. As long as the Philadelphi route is open for Hamas smuggling, the risk to Israel will grow as Iran exports rockets of increasing range to the Gaza Strip. The port of Ashdod is the next likely target, but should Fajr rockets reach Gaza, there is no reason why Hamas cannot pose a threat to Tel Aviv.
Presently, the Hamas leadership understands that repeated Katyusha attacks against Ashkelon will result in an Israeli ground incursion that can cost them nearly one hundred of their personnel. But without addressing the Philadelphi route or the northern Gaza launch sites, it is doubtful that these kinds of deterrence calculations alone will bring the Hamas rockets to a halt and alleviate the misery of the Israeli residents of Sderot.
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