WarSclerotic

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

( Is this another meaningless platitude or is the US giving us a green light to finally DEAL with the Gaza nightmare?  – JW )

Israel fires warning Tamuz missile into Syria as Gaza front escalates.DEBKAfile Special Report November 11, 2012, 4:28 PM (GMT+02:00)

Advanced precision-guided Tamuz missile developed by Israel

Israel’s deteriorating security situation erupted simultaneously on two fronts Sunday, Nov. 11. The IDF fired a Tamuz precision guided missile against a mortar position 4 kilometers inside Syria after a stray mortar hit the IDF Golan defense post at Tel Hazaka.

It was the fourth incident of cross-border violence from the Syrian conflict in 10 days and the first time Israel had fired across the Golan border since the 1973 war. The Tamuz was developed by RAFAEL and is operated from specially modified M-113 Hafiz armored personnel carriers.

At the same time, on the southern front, Palestinians fired Grad missiles from Gaza at the city of Beersheba after loosing a barrage of 60 missiles in less than 24 hours against multiple Israeli civilian locations. Iron Dome intercepted one of the missiles.
Four Israeli soldiers were wounded Saturday, two seriously by an anti-tank missile which set their jeep on fire. Four civilians were injured in their homes and hospitalized Sunday.

The shot fired at Syria was described by the IDF spokesman as a warning to Damascus, backing up the Defense Minister Ehud Barak warning last week that spillovers from the Syrian war would not be tolerated and would elicit a military response.

Israel’s military command expects the military confrontation on the Gaza front to escalate. Israel’s emergency services have been elevated to maximum C-level preparedness in the South and also further north, in case Hamas expands its rocket offensive to central Israel as well.

The Palestinian Gaza terrorist grades are now firing Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) “Katyshas” supplied by the Lebanese Hizballah and 120-mm bunker-busting mortars  in their current offensive against Israeli towns, villages and troops, Israeli lawmaker Shay Hermesh revealed Sunday, Nov. 11 after 6 civilians sere hospitalized.
The Knesset member who lives in Kfar Azza spoke after more than 60 assorted rockets hit southern Israel from Saturday. The public radio Kol Israel interrupted the interview with Hermesh at that point to prevent any more disclosures.
debkafile: The civilians injured Sunday in intense rocket fire aimed at Sderot, Shear Hanegev and the Eshkol district were apparently caught by concentrated Katyusha fire rather than the hit-or-miss Qassams or Grads.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet session by saying: We are set to escalate our response.”
debkafile reported Saturday: Violence spewed out of the Gaza Strip again Saturday night, Nov. 10, with a rocket attack on an IDF Givaty Brigade jeep on a routine task some distance from the border, injuring four Israeli soldiers – one critically, two in moderate condition. This time Hamas’ contractor was the Palestinian Popular Front. After Israeli tanks and helicopters fired back, the Palestinians fired rockets against the Eshkol and Shear Hanegev districts, followed by Grad rockets aimed at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gan Yavneh. Iron Dome intercepted two. Locations north of Ashdod as far north as Gedera went on missile alert. No more casualties are reported thus far.

Thursday, Nov. 8, Palestinian terrorists detonated by remote a tunnel packed with explosives  against a group of Israeli soldiers. None were hurt. The soldiers were searching for bombs rigged as booby-traps for use against their comrades. IDF units in the Gaza sector have been on high alert since before then as Palestinian attacks have kept on coming in an escalating spate – eight from Oct. 8 until this Saturday.

But before that, on Oct. 6, two days after an Iranian stealth drone flew over Israel, Hamas loosed its heaviest barrage ever of 60 rockets and missiles against the Eshkol district. The IDF made no response this this outrage.

On Oct. 13, after an Israeli air strike killed the jihadist Majlis Shura’s commander, Hisham Saidani, Israeli civilians in Beersheba, Netivot and other locations suffered two running days of Palestinian rocket fire on their homes.

On Oct. 19, an IDF patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near Ein Hashlosha.
For three days, Oct. 22-25, rocket salvoes descended on Ashkelon and other locations. This time, the Palestinians began firing for the first time mobile 120mm multiple-firing “Katyusha” systems. Another roadside bomb near Kissufim seriously injured a senior IDF officer, blowing off both his arms..
There was a further escalation after the Israeli bombardment of an Iranian missile plant near Khartoum, one of Hamas’ arms suppliers. On Oct. 28, Palestinian Grad missiles were again fired at Beersheba and the regional area of Dimona where Israel’s nuclear reactor is situated.
Now, once again, more than a million civilians living within the Palestinian terrorists’ ever widening radius of fire are being told to stay close to shelters – those who have them – and mayors worry about opening schools.

And once again, they hear that the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called an urgent conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. The people living in an area between Gedera and the southern tip of the Gaza Strip up to Beersheba wait again on tenterhooks for some action to put an end to their long agony as hostages to Hamas.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Report: Air raid sirens sound in Beersheba – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Air raid sirens were recently heard in the Beersheba area. Since the beginning of the current escalation in the south, the city did not sustain rocket hits. Residents reported they heard an explosion. (Ilana Curiel)

IDF fires warning shots into Syria after shell… JPost – Defense.

Photo: Nir Ellias/Reuters

IDF fires at Syrian territory for first time since 1973 – Israel News, Ynetnews.

The IDF’s Artillery Corps has fired at Syrian mortar posts, for the first time since the Yom Kippur War. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the firing was in response to the firing of a mortar shell at Israel. No injuries or damage were reported in the mortar hit. (Yoav Zitun)

Dragged into unwanted war – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Analysis: Gaza terrorists assume Israel won’t launch broad military campaign before elections

According to the annual IDF Intelligence assessment, which was recently presented to the General Staff, there is a “high probability that we will find ourselves in a war-like situation in 2013” on one of two fronts: Gaza-Sinai in the south or Syria-Lebanon in the north. It appears that this scenario will unfold sooner than anticipated.

The firing of an anti-tank missile from Gaza at an IDF vehicle inside Israeli territory is another stage in the deterioration into a war-like situation which Israel, Egyptand Hamas want to avoid but are being dragged into quickly. As in a Greek play, all of the sides involved are aware that a broad military campaign in Gaza may cause them great suffering and damage, but no one is able to stop the process that will apparently lead to this tragedy. The tragic heroes in this play are Hamas’ leaders and the residents of south Israel.

It is safe to assume that Hamas did not initiate the missile attack on Saturday, just as it did not initiate most of the border incidents over the past few weeks, because the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo wants calm in both Sinai and Gaza.

Morsi needs this calm because he has yet to establish political dominance in Egypt and also because he wants to stabilize the economy and internal security. Hamas fears an Israeli invasion that will cause great suffering to Gaza’s residents and frustration that could threaten its rule in the coastal enclave.

However, Hamas did provide backup for the defiant Gaza terror groups that were behind most of the shooting incidents and attacks along the border fence. It is important to understand that as opposed to Hamas, Palestinian terrorists belonging to Global Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (as well as Salafi terrorists) are seeking a major confrontation between the IDF and Hamas and between the IDF and Egypt’s armed forces. They are driven by ideology and religion.

Hamas, for its part, wants to engage in an armed conflict against Israel from Gaza, with the assistance of the defiant terror groups, without dragging Israel into an extensive military campaign that would also put the Egyptian leadership to the test.

IDF tank at Karni Crossing (Photo: Zeev Trachtman)

Hamas claims that it is conducting legitimate guerrilla warfare against the “occupation,” just as Hezbollah did in the security zone in south Lebanon, but when the IDF returns fire and hits targets inside Gaza, thwarts attempts to launch rockets or neutralizes bombs a few hundred meters inside Palestinian territory, Hamas tells its patrons in Cairo, Qatar and Ankara that Israel is violating its sovereignty and it therefore has the right to launch rockets toward Israeli communities in the Negev.

Hamas’ tactics are aimed at securing the support of the Brotherhood in Egypt and Sunnis throughout the Arab world. This is why the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire reached a few months ago following the last round of violence has been violated. The border incidents are becoming more and more frequent, and the number of injured IDF soldiers is also increasing.

Now that the intentions of Hamas and the rest of the Palestinian terror groups are clear, the ball is in Israel’s court. The forces have undergone training and are ready. Now the government must decide between allowing the current situation to continue at least until after the January elections and launching an extensive military campaign in Gaza.

The decision-makers in Jerusalem must ask themselves if the conditions in the international and regional arenas will provide the IDF with enough time and freedom to operate in order to achieve its military goals in Gaza. And there are other questions: How will the new regime in Egypt respond to an Israeli campaign in Gaza? How will Turkey react? Will the political echelon be able to take advantage of the military achievements to ensure long-term calm in the south?

The elections are another consideration. Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu will most likely benefit from a successful military campaign, but a failed campaign will strengthen the opposition parties.

Another option is the targeted killing of Hamas leaders and the heads of other terror organizations in Gaza. The problem with such a campaign is that before it brings about calm (if at all), it will surely result in a long period of escalation, during which hundreds of rockets and thousands of mortars would be fired toward south Israel.

Even if Hamas decides that it wants a ceasefire, it is not at all certain that Islamic Jihad or the Popular Resistance Committees will comply. In the past, when Hamas was more dominant, a targeted-killing campaign led to nearly eight months of calm, but it is highly unlikely that such a campaign would yield the same results today.

It appears that Hamas’ leadership in Gaza is assuming that the current Israeli government will not want to launch a major military operation before the elections. This is apparently one of the reasons for the escalation along the Israel-Gaza border. Now it is up to the IDF to prove to the Gaza terrorists their calculations were wrong – but without angering Egypt. This is not an easy task.

Netanyahu promises IDF will act ‘forcefully’ in response to rocket attacks | The Times of Israel.

Ministers threaten to up the ante, including targeted killings, to ‘create a completely different deterrence situation’

Benjamin Netanyahu (right) at a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/Flash90)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday responded to ongoing rocket fire, wishing wounded Israeli soldiers and civilians a speedy recovery, and saying that the army would not abide continued attacks from the Gaza Strip.

“The IDF is operating, and will operate forcefully against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, which are sustaining heavy blows from the IDF,” the prime minister said. “The world needs to understand that Israel will not sit idly by in the face of attempts to attack us. We are prepared to intensify the response.

Earlier, government ministers threatened an intensified response to attacks from the Gaza Strip, after a weekend that included almost unabated rocket fire and IAF counter-strikes.

The latest round of violence was triggered by an attack on an Israeli army vehicle along the border on Friday that injured four IDF soldiers.

“We need to create a completely different deterrence situation” in regards to the “terrorist state” in the Gaza Strip, Home Front Defense Minister Avi Dichter said in a Sunday interview with Army Radio.

Dichter, who recently joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, noted that “nobody should think Israel’s actions will be affected by upcoming elections. [Operation] Cast Lead came during an elections period [in 2008-9], and so did [the 1981 attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor at] Osirak.”

Dichter wouldn’t specify what kind of Israeli response could change the rules of the game, and stopped short of calling for a large-scale IDF ground excursion into the Gaza Strip.

Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon was more specific. “There’s no doubt that in the past two weeks we’ve been witnessing an escalation, which Hamas is responsible for,” Ya’alon told Israel Radio. “We aren’t going to let this stand. Overnight we acted… and if there will be the need, the IDF will know — with the instruction of the government, of course — what to do to keep exacting such a price that these provocations won’t pay off for them.”

Ya’alon acknowledged that there were no easy solutions to the problem, but suggested that targeted killings of senior terror leaders had in the past brought about extended periods of calm along the Gaza border.

“I remember in my time [as chief of General Staff], in 2003-2004, Hamas in effect raised a white flag, following targeted killings of its leaders,” he said. “We have many means for exacting a price from the other side, and we will deploy them as we see fit, so that in the end we can bring quiet back to the south.”

Ya’alon didn’t rule out the possibility of a Cast Lead-style ground operation deep in the Gaza Strip, but said Israel would first try to achieve its goals with more moderate force.

“Everything is being weighed and will be weighed,” he intimated, when asked if he was talking about a “Cast Lead II.”

On Sunday morning, Palestinian terrorists fired some nine rockets into southern Israel, putting the total number of projectiles fired from Gaza at over 50 since Saturday. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz convened with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak late Saturday to assess the situation along the border.

Barak said the IDF had responded forcefully to the terrorist fire and would consider additional responses in the upcoming days.

“We will not let such border incidents go unanswered,” said Barak.

AP contributed to this report.

Palestinians fire 40 rockets at South; 3 civil… JPost – Defense.

Israeli lawmaker: Gazan Palestinians now firing Hizballah-supplied Katyushas.

DEBKAfile Special Report November 11, 2012, 11:27 AM (GMT+02:00)

Wounded Israeli soldier on way to hospital.

The Palestinian Gaza terrorist grades are now firing Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) “Katyshas” supplied by the Lebanese Hizballah and 120-mm bunker-busting mortars  in their current offensive against Israeli towns, villages and troops, Israeli lawmaker Shay Hermesh revealed Sunday, Nov. 11 after 6 civilians sere hospitalized.
The Knesset member who lives in Kfar Azza spoke after more than 60 assorted rockets hit southern Israel from Saturday. The public radio Kol Israel interrupted the interview with Hermesh at that point to prevent any more discolosures.
debkafile: The civilians injured Sunday in intense rocket fire aimed at Sderot, Shear Hanegev and the Eshkol district were apparently caught by concentrated Katyusha fire rather than the hit-or-miss Qassams or Grads.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet session by saying: We are set to escalate our response.”
debkafile reported Saturday: Violence spewed out of the Gaza Strip again Saturday night, Nov. 10, with a rocket attack on an IDF Givaty Brigade jeep on a routine task some distance from the border, injuring four Israeli soldiers – one critically, two in moderate condition. This time Hamas’ contractor was the Palestinian Popular Front. After Israeli tanks and helicopters fired back, the Palestinians loosed rockets against the Eshkol and Shear Hanegev districts, followed by Grad rockets aimed at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gan Yavneh. Iron Dome intercepted two. Locations north of Ashdod as far north as Gedera went on missile alert. No more casualties are reported thus far.

Thursday, Nov. 8, Palestinian terrorists detonated by remote a tunnel packed with explosives  against a group of Israeli soldiers. None were hurt. The soldiers were searching for bombs rigged as booby-traps for use against their comrades. IDF units in the Gaza sector have been on high alert since before then as Palestinian attacks have kept on coming in an escalating spate – eight from Oct. 8 until this Saturday.

But before that, on Oct. 6, two days after an Iranian stealth drone flew over Israel, Hamas loosed its heaviest barrage ever of 60 rockets and missiles against the Eshkol district. The IDF made no response this this outrage.

On Oct. 13, after an Israeli air strike killed the jihadist Majlis Shura’s commander, Hisham Saidani, Israeli civilians in Beersheba, Netivot and other locations suffered two running days of Palestinian rocket fire on their homes.

On Oct. 19, an IDF patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near Ein Hashlosha.
For three days, Oct. 22-25, rocket salvoes descended on Ashkelon and other locations. This time, the Palestinians began firing for the first time mobile 120mm multiple-firing “Katyusha” systems. Another roadside bomb near Kissufim seriously injured a senior IDF officer, blowing off both his arms..
There was a further escalation after the Israeli bombardment of an Iranian missile plant near Khartoum, one of Hamas’ arms suppliers. On Oct. 28, Palestinian Grad missiles were again fired at Beersheba and the regional area of Dimona where Israel’s nuclear reactor is situated.
Now, once again, nearly a million civilians living within the Palestinian terrorists’ ever widening radius of fire are being told to stay close to shelters – those who have them – and mayors worry about opening schools.

And once again, they hear that the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called an urgent conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. The people living in an area between Gedera and the southern tip of the Gaza Strip up to Beersheba wait again on tenterhooks for some action to put an end to their long agony as hostages to Hamas.