News From the Long War (VI)

What can ya say?

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Gaza fight goes on as Israel pulls back
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
55 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops withdrew from northern Gaza on Monday, but Israel’s leaders warned that a broad offensive against Islamic militants would continue as Israeli airstrikes and Palestinian rocket attacks persisted into the night.

Hamas proclaimed the Israeli pullback a victory for its fighters. Yet, while defiant in public, the movement’s leaders signaled they were trying to work out a truce after nearly a week of escalating combat.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said peace talks with moderate Palestinians should go on despite the latest violence in the Gaza Strip. The West Bank-based administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said talks would stay suspended during fighting.

On the eve of a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.S. officials called for a quick resumption of negotiations.

Israel’s army withdrew its infantry and tanks from the Gaza town of Jebaliya early Monday after more than two days of fighting, leaving a swath of destruction. Roads had been plowed up, cars crushed by tanks and electric poles toppled.

“There’s no word to describe this horrible scene. I can say nothing but that God is greater than the aggressors, and God is going to avenge us,” said Sami Asliyeh, who lost two female teenage cousins when a shell struck the family home Saturday.

Israeli troops moved into Jebaliya late Friday as part of a major offensive in response to rocket fire by the Islamic militants of Hamas, which seized control in Gaza last June after five days of fighting with Abbas’ supporters.

Recent rocket fire has reached as far as Ashkelon, 11 miles north of Gaza, suddenly putting the city of 120,000 people under daily attack.

Olmert stressed that the offensive would continue.

“We are acting and we will continue to act in a way that is painful and effective, that will bring maximum results in terms of halting terror,” he told members of his Kadima Party.

Fighting in Gaza has killed 121 Palestinians and three Israelis since Wednesday, one of the bloodiest spates of violence in more than seven years of clashes. Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said at least half the dead were civilians.

Despite the lopsided toll, Hamas claimed victory, and 20,000 supporters joined a celebration in Gaza City. A symbolic contingent of 10 Hamas militants marched with assault rifles and grenade launchers as the crowd waved green Hamas flags.

Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar threatened to strike even deeper into Israel if the offensive resumed. “The battle and confrontation will continue and will expand even further than it has reached,” he told the crowd.

But despite the public defiance, Zahar told reporters Hamas was pursuing a cease-fire through an unidentified third party — most likely Egypt. He stressed, however, that Hamas would continue to train its men and develop weapons even under a truce.

Israeli leaders have been reluctant to seek cease-fires, arguing Hamas would use any lull to regroup and rearm. But recent opinion polls say roughly two-thirds of Israelis support truce talks, and a growing number of Israeli leaders have said the government should consider the idea.

Late Monday, an Israeli missile struck militants firing rockets from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing one man, Palestinian officials said. A second strike in the same area caused no casualties, they said.

The Israeli military confirmed both strikes, saying the first hit a rocket launch squad and the second struck a donkey cart loaded with rockets.

Gaza militants continued to fire rockets into southern Israel. Israeli rescue workers said three rockets struck Ashkelon, with one hitting an apartment building. No casualties were reported.

Earlier in the day, Israeli airstrikes targeted weapons manufacturing and storage facilities, a Hamas headquarters and police station. A total of six militants were killed. In Jebaliya, Palestinian medical teams found three bodies in rubble after Israeli troops left and medical officials said another three people wounded previously died Monday.

Olmert said Israel must press forward with peace talks with moderate Palestinians.

“We want to carry on with negotiations because the alternative is Hamas rule in the West Bank as well. Anyone who sees what is going on in Gaza can well imagine how much worse it would be for Israel if there were to be Hamas rule in the West Bank,” Olmert said.

The Palestinians have two rival governments — the Abbas administration in the West Bank and the Hamas regime in Gaza.

While battling Hamas, Israel relaunched peace talks with Abbas at a U.S.-hosted conference in November. Although Abbas wields little influence in Gaza, he still claims to represent the area. On Sunday, he suspended the peace talks in sympathy with the people of Gaza.

Palestinian officials said that Abbas would not change his mind until the Israeli offensive ended and that he intended to complain about the Gaza incursion to Rice when she visited his West Bank headquarters Tuesday.

The Gaza violence illustrates the huge challenges facing the U.S.-sponsored peace push.

Olmert and Abbas have set a December target for a peace agreement. But with Hamas firmly in control of Gaza, it remains unclear how any deal can be carried out. Hamas, a violent Islamic group with close ties to Iran, is committed to Israel’s destruction.

In Washington, the State Department renewed U.S. calls for an end to the rocket attacks, accusing Hamas of pursuing “endless violence.” It also called for a speedy resumption of peace talks between Abbas and Israel.

“Our goal is to see that these negotiations resume and ultimately lead to an agreement by the end of the year, which is what the two leaders committed themselves to,” deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

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Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City contributed to this report.

It’s not like we didn’t know this...

Military: Iran using Shiite proxies to try to kill leaders of Anbar Awakening
Hot Air ^ | March 03, 2008 | Allahpundit

Posted on 03/03/2008 4:21:59 PM CST by jdm

Iran wants to weaken the burgeoning Sunni political movement in Iraq while also breathing new life into Al Qaeda? Go figure.

The US military claims to have proof that armed groups supported by Tehran are trying to sabotage Iraq’s US-backed Awakening Councils, the armed neighbourhood groups that have successfully driven al-Qaeda out of many districts of Baghdad and elsewhere.

In an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI), US military spokesman Adm Gregory Smith said that “the American military recently obtained confessions from detainees who are members of the Al-Quds Brigade and other Shia group who have been arrested in various parts of Iraq, who said that they were assigned to carry out armed operations to kill the leaders and the members of the Awakening Councils, in order to destroy this experiment.”

Smith said that “the American forces have arrested 14 Iranians who represented a danger to the security of Iraq,” without giving any other details.

The head of Iraqi intelligence, Muhammad Abdallah al-Shahwani declared a few days ago that elements of Iranian secret services planned to sabotage the Awakening Council project.

Not the first time we’ve heard of Iran giving aid and comfort to Sunni “militants”, although the assistance in this case is less direct than in the past. The more chaos in Iraq there is, the tougher it is for the U.S. to maintain a presence, the more it redounds to the Shiites’ advantage given their numerical advantage in the event of civil war. Bump off the leaders of the Awakening, breed resentment among the Sunnis about a campaign of terror against their leaders by their sectarian rivals, and goad them into a fight that way. Clockwork. Exit question: Any news on the wires that might explain why this story’s being released right now?

Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979813/posts

Senior official: Iran behind rocket fire
JPost ^

Posted on 03/03/2008 4:43:29 PM CST by maquiladora

Rockets continued to hit Ashkelon and the western Negev after the IDF ground operations in the Gaza Strip were concluded early Monday morning. As the defense establishment began to analyze the recent days of fighting, intelligence officers pointed an accusatory finger toward Teheran.

Iranian technology and intelligence was used by Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip in the recent round of violence, said a senior official in Military Intelligence during a Monday meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

“Iran’s influence and effect is very clear,” said the official.

Terrorists fired at least 20 Iranian-assembled Grad-type rockets, which are significantly more damaging than the Kassam rockets that have been fired at Sderot and the western Negev for the past seven years, said the official.

Military Intelligence was concerned that while the IDF was confronting the ongoing rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, a new attack on Israel could be launched in the North, said the official.

“Hizbullah is weighing the situation and preparing its forces. In return we must prepare our forces,” said the official.

(Excerpt) Read more at jpost.com ...

Link: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979822/posts

Another funny.

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Palestinians call drones a deadly weapon

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writers 43 minutes ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinians say they know when an Israeli drone is in the air: Cell phones stop working, TV reception falters and they can hear a distant buzzing. They also know what’s likely to come next — a devastating explosion on the ground.

Palestinians say Israel’s pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, which has killed nearly 120 people since last week.

“Our experience is that the drone missile is successful in hitting its targets, and it’s deadly,” said Dr. Mahmoud Assali, a Palestinian physician who works in the emergency room of a northern Gaza Strip hospital that has often treated Palestinian gunmen hit by Israeli drones.

“The drone has a zone of around 15 meters (50 feet) where it decimates everything. It targets people and leaves them in pieces,” Assali said.

Israel is at the forefront of the drone technology that is increasingly being used in hotspots around the world. The unmanned craft provide a deadly and cost-effective alternative for armies to target enemies, without risking their own pilots’ lives and reducing civilian casualties in heavily populated areas.

The unmanned craft are guided by remote control from the ground. Because of their small size and relatively low speed, their low-yield missiles can be aimed precisely.

The use of drones is shrouded in secrecy, and Israeli defense officials refuse to comment publicly on whether they are being used in airstrikes in Gaza. However, Israeli officers in private conversations have confirmed use of the weapons.

Wary Gaza militants using binoculars are on constant lookout for drones. When one is sighted overhead, the militants report via walkie-talkie to their comrades, warning them to turn off their cell phones and remove the batteries for fear the Israeli technology will trace their whereabouts.

A militant from the southern Gaza Strip who belongs to the Islamic Jihad group said drones were mostly used to target individuals, and not structures. He said they often hovered at much higher altitudes than manned aircraft and their missiles were frequently more destructive, leaving deep gashes where they landed.

The militant said the drones usually targeted slow-moving targets, like people walking, or cars slowing down to avoid potholes in a road.

“It looks like it makes small circles in the sky, but before it’s about to fire a missile, it slows down,” the militant said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared being identified by Israel. “It’s not like any other plane. You don’t see the missile leaving, it’s very quiet.”

Damian Kemp, an aviation desk editor at Jane’s Defence Weekly, said Israel is probably the first country in the world to use unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, for both surveillance and to fire missiles. Israel is a world leader in the field and “capable of doing everything from the very small to the very large,” he said.

He said drones were likely more accurate, cost-effective and safer than manned F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters.

“The key thing in a UAV is it does missions that are dull, dirty and dangerous,” Kemp said. “They can be up there for a long time and in areas where you don’t need to put a pilot at risk.”

Jaber Wishah, deputy director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, said his group has received reports about drones firing missiles for more than three years.

“The kind of missile — from the shrapnel we’ve gathered — appears to be small,” Wishah said. “But do we have documentation, photographs of a drone? We don’t.”

Israel has long been considered the world leader in drone technology and proudly exhibits its products at international air shows. But it maintains its drones are for surveillance purposes, and refuses to confirm using them in airstrikes.

Doron Suslik, a top official at the Israel Aerospace Industries, which manufactures drones, said the company has customers from all over the world, including Switzerland, France and India, with annual sales of $500 million to $600 million.

He refused to divulge the drone’s military capabilities, citing his clients’ desire for confidentiality. Government and army officials also refused to comment on the drone’s firing capabilities.

Israel has used unmanned aircraft since the early 1970s, and its fleet has steadily increased. Air force officials say drones have become such an integral part of Israel’s air power that their flight hours now outnumber those of manned fighter planes.

Last March, Israel unveiled its largest unmanned aircraft to date at a seaside air force base in central Israel. The Heron, with a 54-foot wingspan, can fly for up to 30 hours at a speed of 140 mph and a height of 30,000 feet.

Kemp of Jane’s Defence Weekly, said a newer version, the Heron TP, was unveiled in June in Paris. With a wingspan of 85 feet, it can fly for as long as 36 hours and carry a maximum payload of 2,200 pounds.

The U.S. Army has used drones such as the MQ-1 Predator and the MQ-9 Reaper for airstrikes against al-Qaida commanders and other militants in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. drones have also reportedly killed militants in Pakistan and Yemen.

U.S.-made Predators are a common sight in the skies of Baghdad, equipped with cameras, sensors and radar that can capture video and still images.

The U.S. Air Force operates a fleet of roughly 100 Predators. The CIA also uses the aircraft and was closely involved in its development. It provides almost real-time, full-motion video and is remotely piloted — Air Force pilots control and operate the aircraft in Iraq and Afghanistan from Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas.

The Reaper is four times heavier than the Predator, can fly twice as fast and twice as high.

In January, a missile fired from a Predator killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander, in Pakistan’s lawless tribal region of north Waziristan. Coalition forces in Afghanistan are believed to have launched a number of missile strikes from drones against Taliban and al-Qaida militants hiding on the Pakistani side of the border, but the U.S. military has never confirmed them.

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AP writer Aron Heller reported from Jerusalem. AP writer Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem also contributed to this report.

and another.

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For almost 200 million Arabic speakers from Indiana to Indonesia, the IDF has one face and name - 25-year-old Avichay Adraee. The lone member of the IDF’s Spokesman’s Office Arabic Language desk has had his hands full over the past week, presenting the army’s perspective on Kassam rockets and IDF operations in Gaza to the variegated world of Arabic-language media.

“The narrative that Hamas wanted to present was one surrounding the children, with images of children fleeing, and burned bodies of children and so on,” said Adraee, who said that the most difficult question that he was asked in recent days was whether the IDF had changed its strategy to specifically target children.

“You try to say that children are a red line, whether they’re in Sderot or Beit Hanun, and that the difference is that there is an organization [Hamas] that puts children on the front line, and intentionally acts from civilian areas,” explained Adraee. “And ultimately, there were comments made by Palestinians within Gaza that inadvertently helped make this point.”

Adraee recalled one instance in which the director of a Gaza hospital was being interviewed in recent days, and was asked if he could tell the difference between “freedom fighters” and civilians when they are brought in after being wounded. The doctor said no - explaining that “the freedom fighters are forced to blend in with the population,” which Adraee said only helped to strengthen the IDF’s point.

Adraee is quick to emphasize that it is a mistake to view the Arabic-language media as monolithic, even on a rallying point like IDF operations in the Gaza Strip.

“There are media outlets that are much more pragmatic, and didn’t go all the way with the Hamas, even asking very hard questions of the other side,” he said. “Al-Jazeera were very, very militant, whereas Al-Arabiya was quite informative. They demonstrated that they knew the great force of press in the Arab world and didn’t want to use it to inflame the region.

“Not everybody is Al-Jazeera. The pornography of death is not necessarily part of the Arabic consensus - and they understand that it doesn’t always contribute to the situation in the region.”

In some cases, Adraee tried to present the situation as a simple battle between a state and terrorists, an analogy that speaks to moderate Muslims in predominately secular countries like Tunisia and Morocco that are also plagued by Islamist terror groups.

“There is today an understanding that is anti-Hamas,” explained Adraee, “and they understand the concept of the axis of evil.”

The most widely-distributed Arabic-language newspaper in the world, A-Sharq al-Awsat, was also not entirely convinced by what Adraee described as the Hamas narrative of suffering and victimhood. The popular London-based paper ran two opinion pieces attacking Hamas, saying that it was giving Israel an excuse to attack, and that the rocket fire ultimately harmed Palestinian civilians.

At times, said Adraee - who describes himself as having had “a bug” for Arabic ever since his father forced him into intensive study of the language in high school - his efforts hinge on a simple turn of phrase.

One such incident occurred when he was surprised to find himself live on a BBC Arabic-language radio program facing off against a senior Hamas spokesman. “He offered the usual narrative, and then I responded, using an Arabic expression that says ‘you hit me and then you began to cry’ to describe the situation in which we have faced seven years of rocket fire.”

After that comment, Adraee said, he received e-mails and messages on Facebook from Arabic speakers congratulating him on his quick and witty response. At another point, he asked if Hamas wouldn’t serve its people better by using the pipe components of Kassam rockets to improve Beit Hanun’s sewer system. Seven Palestinians were killed in 2007 after the northern Gaza city’s sewers exploded due to faulty infrastructure.

It is this feedback that makes Adraee’s unique task rewarding. “I’m not trying to open a branch of the Zionist movement in Beirut, but if I’ve managed to convince one person at the other end of the world, then I see that as a great achievement.”

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1204546391339

Good morning everyone.

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Rice: Mideast talks should resume quick

By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer 3 minutes ago

CAIRO, Egypt - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday she will work toward resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations as soon as possible, saying Hamas is trying to wreck chances for the peace process.

Rice made the comments after talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo on a stopover before heading to Israel, trying to rescue peace talks after an Israeli military offensive that killed more than 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel launched the offensive to stop rocket attacks by the Hamas militant groups on nearby Israeli cities, but the assault prompted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend negotiations.

“There has to be an active peace process that can withstand the efforts of rejectionists to keep peace from being made, the people who are firing rockets do not want peace,” Rice told reporters in Cairo. “They sow instability, that is what Hamas is doing.”

Rice backed Israel’s right to respond to the rocket fire, but said it must avoid causing civilian casualties.

“The rocket attacks against innocent Israelis in their cities need to stop. This can’t go on. No Israeli government can tolerate that,” she said. But the Israelis “need to be aware of the effects of these operations on innocent people.”

She said Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip last July, is armed “in part” by Iran and underlined the need for the United States and the West to train and develop the Palestinian security forces loyal to Abbas, whose government controls the West Bank.

“Hamas gets armed by the Iranians and if nobody helps to improve the security capabilities of the legitimate Palestinian Authority security forces. That’s not a very good situation,” she said at a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.

On her way to the Middle East, Rice said she still thinks the two sides can reach a deal for Palestinian statehood this year.

“I do think that negotiations ought to resume as soon as possible,” Rice told reporters on her plane. “I understand that the situation has been complicated. But the longer the negotiations are not ongoing or the longer that they are suspended, if that’s what one wants to call it, the more it is a victory for those who don’t want to see a two-state solution.”

Rice declined to call for a cease-fire, which many Israelis think would legitimize Hamas and its hold in Gaza. The Mediterranean coastal strip is the smaller, poorer of two Arab tracts that would form an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Egypt’s Aboul Gheit, whose country has sought to isolate Hamas, also stopped short of calling for a cease-fire. He said Egypt was seeking to convince Israel “not to resort to excessive use of force.... The imbalance of power (between Hamas and the Israelis) must be taken into account.” He said Egypt also urges the Palestinians to halt rocket fire.

Israel said it wants to continue negotiations, but suggested it also may launch a full-scale re-invasion of the Gaza territory it abandoned three years ago in a first step toward ending defensive occupation of lands the Palestinians claim for the state.

The goal of two side-by-side states anytime soon has looked far from reach in recent days as an Israeli civilian died from militant rocket fire and more than 100 Palestinians died in the Israeli offensive. Violence and protests spilled over from Gaza to the larger, more stable West Bank, where Rice was due later Tuesday.

The moderate U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership in the West Bank suspended peace talks in protest, and gave no date for return. That made restoring two-way talks Rice’s chief objective for a trip she had planned to check up on the negotiators’ progress.

In Egypt, Rice asked President Hosni Mubarak and other officials for help controlling Gaza’s small border with Egypt, site of a border breach in January that became something of a public relations coup for Hamas. Some Israeli military analysts think the more sophisticated longer-range rockets fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon in recent days probably came into Gaza during the week that fences with Egypt were down.

Rice was also looking for ways to speed aid into Gaza, sealed off for months as Israel tries to punish Hamas and break its rule. She said proposals from Egypt and the Palestinians to reopen a monitored border crossing point have merit.

Gaza and the Palestinian leadership split that underlies the crisis are the largest potential deal-killers for Bush’s goal to sign a peace treaty before the close of his term in January. The crisis comes on top of the usual list of obstacles that have spiked previous peace attempts.

Photographs of dead and injured Palestinian children blanketed Arab media on Sunday and Monday amid stern international warnings to Israel to avoid what Palestinians and others say is the indiscriminate killing of civilians. Israel pulled its forces out of the territory Monday even as Israel’s defense chief warned that a larger assault may be in the offing.

Arab outrage over Israel’s offensive in Gaza threatened to swamp what promise remained in the peace framework that Bush launched with international backing last fall. The talks have featured regular secret meetings between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators but no public breakthroughs. Israeli housing activity, Palestinian militant violence and police inaction already had undermined confidence on both sides following the celebratory mood of Bush’s November peace conference at Annapolis, Md

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_mideast

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Everyone should feel much better now - ooooh boy.

Good morning again.

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Egypt says Israel using excessive force in Gaza

‘IDF bombarding civilians without distinction,’ FM Aboul Gheit says during joint press conference with American counterpart in Cairo. Rice says Hamas using rocket attacks on Israel to delay peace process, voices concern over humanitarian situation in Strip

Roee Nahmias
Published: 03.04.08, 12:13 / Israel News

“Israel is using excessive force against the Palestinians in Gaza; this must stop,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday.

“Israel is bombarding civilians without distinction,” he said during a joint press conference in Cairo with his American counterpart Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Rice, who is in Cairo on the first leg of a brief Middle East trip, blamed Hamas for the escalation in Gaza and demanded that the Islamist group halt the rocket attacks on Israel.

Saying Israel had the right to defend itself, the American secretary of state told reporters Hamas was trying to wreck Palestinian statehood talks between Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who cut off negotiations last weekend.

Published: 03/04/08, 11:25 AM / Last Update: 03/04/08, 11:50 AM

Kassam Destroys Sderot Home, IAF Destroys Kassam Terror Cells

by Hana Levi Julian

(IsraelNN.com) Sderot residents awakened in the early morning light on Tuesday to the wail of the first Color Red rocket alert siren of the day.

Less than a half minute later, a Kassam rocket slammed into a house. The house was destroyed, but terrorists failed to hurt anyone in the attack, as no one was home.

The house is one of hundreds abandoned by residents who have become disenchanted with the government’s failure to protect Sderot from the constant rocket attacks fired by Palestinian Authority terrorists in northern Gaza.

Within the hour, the IAF attacked two rocket-launching terrorist cells in separate strikes. Soldiers confirmed hits on both cells. The IDF said the attacks targeted terrorists who were launching rockets at Israel from areas north of Jabalya and east of Gaza City.

Two terrorists were eliminated in the IAF strikes. One was identified as Ayman Cahouji, a member of the Hamas terrorist organization that rules Gaza. The second dead terrorist was not identified.

Undeterred, Gaza terrorists continued their attacks, firing two Kassam rockets at southern Israel at mid-morning. One landed near Kibbutz Miflasim and the other exploded in Kibbutz Sa’ad.

No one was injured and no damage was reported.

Damage to the economy in Sderot and in other western Negev communities, however, has ballooned in the past year. The damage to just two of the area’s factories has reached NIS 12 million.

The Hollandia factory in Sderot reported Tuesday morning that it has lost NIS 10 million in direct sales and indirect business due to rocket fire and related damages. Most of the losses were incurred in the past 12 months, according to a report submitted by the company to the Manufacturers Association.

Hadas Rice, CFO of Nahara Industries, reported a loss of NIS 1.8 million in damages to her company’s factory in the region. At least 20 percent of the workers at the Nahara factory have quit their jobs and left the area, she added. As a result, the manufacturer has been failing to meet its production deadlines.

Tuesday morning’s Kassam attack was fired from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, located less than a mile away from Sderot.

The IDF withdrew its forces from the area a scant 24 hours earlier.

Rocket launchers continued to launch their deadly attacks on the western Negev throughout the four-day intensive IDF military operation that eliminated more than 100 terrorists in Gaza since Thursday.

The coastal city of Ashkelon also became a new focal point for rocket attacks from Gaza, with terrorists using the longer-range Grad-type Katyusha rockets to hit targets in the coastal city.

Military censors released for publication Tuesday morning the news that one of the Katyushas exploded close to the home of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter in Ashkelon sometime over the weekend.

A seven-story apartment building in Ashkelon sustained a direct hit by a Grad missile on Monday morning. A second missile exploded in a playground close to a nursery preschool.

The Home Front Command decided after the Grad missile attacks to expand its assistance in helping Ashkelon residents learn to protect themselves against terrorist attacks from Gaza.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125457

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