Israel kills top militant, group renews rocket fire

Herald News Daily ^ | 10/24/05 | Muin Shadid

[Valin]

TULKARM, West Bank - Israeli troops killed a top militant in the West Bank on Monday, while Gaza gunmen fired rockets toward Israel in a flare-up of violence that threatened to unravel an eight-month cease-fire.

Israeli troops shot dead Islamic Jihad commander Loai Assadi during a raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. He was the most senior Palestinian militant to be killed since the start of the truce in March. Islamic Jihad gunmen in northern Gaza said they fired 25 rockets into Israel in retaliation, after declaring earlier in the day "let calm go to hell." The army said several rockets landed in open fields in Israel and caused no casualties. Troops responded with artillery fire into northern Gaza and aircraft fired missiles at gunmen spotted with rocket launchers. The renewed violence frayed an already shaky cease-fire and undermined hopes that Israel‘s Gaza pullout last month, after 38 years of occupation, could revive peacemaking.

Militant groups in Gaza, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas, stopped firing rockets last month after a similar flare-up in violence in which Israel killed several gunmen in retaliation for rocket and mortar bomb salvoes. Islamic Jihad vowed to avenge the killing of Assadi, 26, who Israel had accused of masterminding suicide bombings that killed 10 Israelis since the truce was declared in February. The army said soldiers raiding the town of Tulkarm targeted Assadi and another militant, Majed al-Ashkar, killed on Sunday, because they had been planning further attacks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas‘s office said in a statement the West Bank killing marked an escalation in violence that threatened to undermine Abbas‘s efforts to bring calm and security. "We reiterate that jihad and resistance are the only option to respond to the Zionist attacks against our people across the homeland," Islamic Jihad said in a statement. Though the group had declared its commitment to maintain "calm" until the end of the year, its Gaza-based leader Mohammad Al-Hindi said on Monday: "Calm does not deprive the Palestinian people from responding to crimes.

Israel has said it has the right to target "ticking bombs" and the army said in a statement after the rocket salvoes that it would respond to any anti-Israeli attack. Israeli officials say Assadi was behind two suicide bombings this year, one that killed five people at an Israeli shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya in July and another that killed five Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub in February.

Army Colonel Aharon Haliva, commander of the force that entered Tulkarm, said troops had surrounded a house where Assadi, long at the top of Israel‘s wanted list, was hiding and killed him when he fired on them as he tried to escape. A soldier was lightly hurt. The army said Assadi had planned to send a suicide bomber into Israel in coming days.

At the start of the raid, soldiers riddled a car with gunfire, killing Ashkar, 26. He was connected to both Islamic Jihad and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Abbas‘s Fatah group. Haliva said troops killed Ashkar after he shot first, slightly wounding a soldier. Palestinian witnesses said he never fired.

The army has made frequent raids into Tulkarm and other major West Bank cities and towns during a five-year-old uprising. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed that Israel will never give up large West Bank settlement blocs. Israel evacuated 8,500 settlers from Gaza. Some 245,000 Jews live in the West Bank, home to 2.4 million Palestinians.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Corinne Heller in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)

[Valin]

Israeli troops shot dead Islamic Jihad commander Loai Assadi during a raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm. He was the most senior Palestinian militant to be killed since the start of the truce in March.

Could we have a moment of silence?...No?.....Well then how about a beer?

[thoughtomator]

Beer won't go well with the champagne.

[ncountylee]

"We reiterate that jihad and resistance are the only option to respond to the Zionist attacks against our people across the homeland,"

The jihadists never stop. Only harsh measures should be used agaist them.

[Ninian Dryhope]

Good job. Thank you, Israelis, for killing one of our mutual enemies.

[Joe Boucher]

I.D.F. killed another bad guy pali blah blah blah.
And the palis launch more missles at Jews, blah blah blah.
They hate each other, why not just go to real war and kill each other? get it over with.

[QQQQ]

But it going well with the vodka.

[NormsRevenge]

Israeli soldiers stand near the body of Loai Assadi, an Islamic Jihad movement commander, in the West Bank town of Tulkarm, October 24, 2005. Israeli troops killed a top commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Monday during a raid into the occupied West Bank, Israel Radio said. The report said that Assadi was a prime target and responsible for several attacks in Israeli cities, including the two suicide bombings since the start of an eight-month-old ceasefire. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

[NormsRevenge]

One more, same caption as above.

[MarkL]

They hate each other, why not just go to real war and kill each other? get it over with.

Unfortunately, the UN has stopped Israel from doing so, over and over again. As I recently posted on another thread, in 1973, the UN stopped Israel from completely destroying both the Egyptian and Syrian armies. Israeli armor was less than 50 miles from Damascus, the Syrian capital.

Unfortunately, what we have seen over and over again in the Israeli-arab wars is exactly what Rush has said to be true. You can't have peace without complete victory. And the UN has stopped Israel from complete victories in their wars with their arab neighbors every time they began to kick ass.

Mark