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Past damage from a Qassam in Sderot (file)
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| By israelinsider staff May 16, 2007 |
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A 70-year-old woman was moderately to seriously injured, along with another resident, when a Qassam directly hit a house in the western Negev town of Sderot. In this latest attack, three Qassams were launched into Israel, bringing the day's total to 13.
Medical workers treated many of the town's residents for shock, and the elderly woman was bought to a hospital. Since Tuesday around 30 rockets have been fired into Israel by Palestinian terrorist groups.
With the attacks, Israeli security officials believe that Hamas was attempting to deflect responsibility for its killing more than 16 Fatah men during bloody factional fighting by turning the blame and the aggression against Israel. Hamas stormed a Fatah official's home Wednesday morning, murdering six and shattering the latest attempt at a ceasefire.
The Defense Minister mouthed the usual platitudes. "Israel cannot afford to accept harm to its citizens, and will perform the necessary operations to defend its sovereignty and ensure the citizens' safety," said Peretz. "We will not be part of internal Palestinian power struggles, but we will react harshly," he added.
Defense officials believe that Hamas, in distress over Palestinian in-fighting, was trying to distract Palestinians from their difficulties and unify them by attacks on Israel.
"Extreme Israeli activity will serve Hamas' interests," a defense establishment source quoted by YnetNews said. "Therefore we should put a lot of thought into our actions so that we don?t regret them in the future." Or be called before a commission of inquiry, he may have been thinking.
The diplomatic-security cabinet is scheduled to meet next only on Sunday to discuss Israel's policy toward Gaza. That forum is also not expected to approve a large-scale ground operation. The existing guidelines permit only the preventive killing of those involved in making or launching rockets, limited ground incursions into the area just over the Gaza-Israel border and targeting of "activists" seen actually preparing to launch a rocket.
The source discounted the relative significance of the barrage of rocket attacks. Although the Qassam threat may be more "publicized," he said, there are still other issues in the Strip that are equally disturbing, including the armament and strengthening of terror organizations.
Residents of Sderot and other places hit hard by the rockets are less able to accept this "publicity" with equanimity. Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said, "I find myself moving from scene to scene, where in at least three of the spots people were injured. It looks like Stalingrad; it's simply a town at war." He called for the government to act and to not hide behind sterile policy that abandon citizens to rocket fire. "In this difficult time I call on the Israeli government to come to Sderot to see the results of its restraint policy."
But the Prime Minister's office release a statement that made clear its policy was "business as usual." The statement said: "Israel today extended its hand for peace yet again, but has had it rejected by the firing of a series of barrages into Sderot, hitting schools and homes." srael, the statement said, viewed the attacks as a Hamas "provocation," and "would choose the time and place to respond." |
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