IDF holds fire despite rocket barrage

Jerusalem Post ^ | 2/11/5 | MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

[SmithL]

The IDF was ordered not to respond Thursday to heavy barrages of mortar shellings and Kassam rockets attacks on settlements in Gush Katif and the northern Gaza Strip. The day also saw a planned suicide bombing thwarted.

Over 30 mortar shells and Kassam rockets were fired at settlements in Gush Katif. No one was wounded; a building was damaged. Morag, Atzmona and Neveh Dekalim were all attacked.

IDF Spokesman officials said most of the attacks were launched from the Khan Yunis area.

Hamas claimed responsibility, saying it was retaliating for the killing of a Palestinian man near Rafah on Wednesday by IDF gunfire. Hamas claimed it fired 45 mortar shells and rockets throughout the day, while the IDF said the figure was 25.

Angered by the lack of IDF response, Gush Katif settlers called on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to instruct the army to act.

Describing the upsurge in violence as insufferable, Mofaz warned that Israel would be forced to act if Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas failed to rein in Hamas and other terror groups seeking to derail a cease-fire.

Throughout the day Mofaz met with senior IDF and security officials to assess the situation on the ground. If the violence continued, the IDF would be ready to act if given the green light by the government, he said.

On Thursday night, OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Dan Harel met with PA security head Musa Arafat and demanded that immediate action be taken to halt the attacks on settlements. Senior IDF officers did not rule out the possibility that pinpoint operations would be carried out in the areas from which the rockets and mortar shells were fired if the Palestinians failed to stop the attacks.

Sources in the Shin Bet as well as senior IDF officers said they were not surprised by the upsurge in violence but expressed hope that Abbas would take steps to control the terrorist groups. "There have been attempts by Palestinian security forces to quell violence – they have destroyed some tunnels and carried out arrests – but their actions are far from satisfactory," an officer told The Jerusalem Post.

Hamas was taking advantage of the situation to strengthen its position and arm itself, and had no intention of abiding by the cease-fire, another official said.

Mushir Abu Masri, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said the group had never promised to abide by a cease-fire and that it would continue launching attacks every time the "Zionist army" killed Palestinians.

In Nablus, IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) agents arrested Mahran Abu Hamis, 21, who planned to dispatch a suicide bomber to blow up a bus in Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood in the coming days. Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were jointly planning the attack, which they hoped would derail efforts to restore calm to the area.

On Thursday night, shots were fired several times at Rafiah Yam in southern Gaza. No one was wounded in the attacks.

In Sawara north of Bethlehem, security forces arrested two Fatah fugitives responsible for shooting attacks against soldiers. In the Fahma refugee camp southwest of Jenin, soldiers arrested an Islamic Jihad fugitive responsible for shooting attacks.

Meanwhile, 60 alerts were registered by the security establishment on Thursday. Security officials said the majority stemmed from Gaza and the rest from the Samaria region.

The release of 900 Palestinian prisoners is scheduled to take place next week. The Prisons Service will publish the names 48 hours before they are freed to allow members of the public to appeal.

[sarah_f]

The traitor sharon is having thousands of armed Israeli troops trained to forcibly expel the very same Jews the arab terrorists are rocketing.

The traitor will act against religious Jews, not genocidal arab muslim terrorists.

This is Israel after all.

[familyop]

The terrorists/clowns who fired mortars were so clumsy, even with such expense and fireworks display, that they didn't kill anyone. And at another location, yet another one blew himself up.

[sarah_f]

Not much to find but then I'm pretty tired.

A homemade rocket fired by Palestinian militants is seen outside a house at the Neve Dekalim Jewsish settlement, part of the Gush Katif block of settlements, in the southern Gaza Strip (news - web sites) Thursday Feb. 10, 2005. Palestinian militants fired dozens of mortar shells and homemade rockets at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip Thursday, prompting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to order his security forces to move quickly to preserve a new cease-fire with Israel.(AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

[SJackson]

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