WarSclerotic

Palestinians fire 13 rockets, mortars into Sou… JPost – Defense.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Prime minister to meet with foreign diplomats, prepare ground for possible Gaza operation | The Times of Israel.

Following two-day escalation in which over 140 rockets were fired on southern Israel from the Strip, Netanyahu says the IDF is ready to intensify the response

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on November 11 (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with foreign diplomats on Monday to update them on the Gaza situation and prepare world opinion for a possible extensive military operation in the Strip.

Southern Israel has come under heavy rocket and mortar fire from Gaza over the last two days, during which more than 140 projectiles were fired by terror groups, disrupting normal routines and closing schools throughout the region. Three people have been injured and several houses damaged in the barrage.

Israel has so far responded with preventive and retaliatory airstrikes, targeting rocket launching squads and other terrorist infrastructures, killing six and injuring dozens.

Fighting continued Monday despite reports of an Egyptian moderated truce that was supposed to take effect Sunday evening. Cabinet ministers, heads of southern regional councils and citizens of the south have called on the government to authorize the IDF to carry out missions that will restore Israel’s deterrence and lead to an extended period of calm in the region.

Netanyahu held consultations with defense establishment leaders on Sunday and was briefed on various military options to tackle the situation in Gaza.

“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 on Sunday. “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.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak made clear that Israel would not hesitate to reenter Gaza. “If we are forced to go back into Gaza in order to deal Hamas a [serious] blow and restore security for all of Israel’s citizens, then we will not hesitate to do so,” he said.

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon denied Monday that Israel had agreed to a truce with Gaza organizations. “I don’t know of any request for a ceasefire by Hamas, nor of any actions taken with that goal in mind by Gaza,” he said in an interview to Army Radio.

Ya’alon indicated he supported the resumption of targeted killing operations against terrorists leaders, a strategy he said worked well during his time at the helm of the IDF during 2003-2004.

On Sunday, Ya’alon spoke about the possibility of a Cast Lead-style ground operation deep in the Gaza Strip, saying 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.”

Internal Defense Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said the IDF needed to respond forcefully to the Gaza rocket fire in order to bring an end to the “insufferable” situation in the south.

Speaking on Israel Radio Monday, Aharonovich said Hamas was responsible for the attacks from Gaza and that the results of any IDF action must be “painful.”

Aharonovich said he does not support re-conquering the Gaza Strip, which Israel unilaterally withdrew from in 2005, but said that the army had many tools at its disposal. He said that Hamas only understands force and that Israel has the means to overcome it.

“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.

Rocket hits Netivot home’s yard – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( If this story is accurate, I am shocked and scared.  To allow fear of the “International community’s reaction” to prevent us from protecting our citizens is equivalent in its effect to out-and-out appeasement.

This is not the Israel I know and love.  It is a timorous and debased shadow of its former self.  God protect the people of Israel.  It looks like no one else will. – JW )

Nighttime lull ends when rocket hits private home’s yard; dozens suffer panic attacks, house sustains damage. Rocket salvo on south follows; one is intercepetd by Iron Dome. IAF strikes Gaza terror hubs overnight

Ilana Curiel

A relative overnight lull came to a halt around 7 am Monday with a rocket hitting a yard of a private home in the southern city of Netivot. Twenty-six people suffered panic attacks and were treated on the scene. The house was damaged by shrapnel.

Two hours later, five additional rockets were fired from Gaza towards the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. One was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. No damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Overnight, the IAF struck a tunnel and a weapons cache in northern Gaza, as well as a rocket launching site in the Strip’s south, according to a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit early on Monday.

Egyptian Intelligence officials were said to have brokered an end to the current round of escalation in the south, Ynet learned Sunday. Sources in Cairo and Gaza said that the nighttime will put the ceasefire to the test and indeed, no rockets were fired overnight.

Rocket damage in Netivot (Photo: Shai Peretz)

According to the Egyptian and Palestinian sources, Hamas agreed to hold fire, but the Islamic Jihadcontinued to launch rockets in the evening, prompting the IAF to strike.

The sources said that Israelreportedly agreed not to retaliate over sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, as long as it was sans casualties. No Israeli source has corroborated the report.

Beersheba and other southern communities decided to reopen schools on Monday, despite the tension. Netivot decided to open schools that were fortified.

“We heard a siren, ran for shelter and then the blast sounded,” Herzl Zaguri, a Netivot resident, described Monday morning’s rocket attack. “I don’t know how long this will last. It’s scary… Kids on their way to school are hysterical, and there’s no one to save them.”

Over 100 Qassam rockets, mortar shells and Grads were fired at Israel in the span of 24 hours, causing property damage but luckily not fatalities. The IAF struck several terror hubs in the Strip.

Ground operation

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel is bracing to face the international community over the possibility of stepping up its retaliatory efforts against Gaza. However, sources in the political arena said they doubt Netanyahu will go through with such a step, saying that Israel does not seek an escalation.

Defense Minster Ehud Barak stressed that “If the need arises, we will expand our range of operations.”

Barak said that Israel intends to deter Hamas from firing on civilians or attacking along the Gaza border. “This could last more than a few days and more than one round (of fire), but we are determined,” the defense minister said.

Sources in Jerusalem said that generating legitimacy for a ground operation is more difficult than it once was, especially considering the international community’s intolerance for such measures.

According a state source, Netanyahu wants “to create a reality where Israel isn’t blamed for any future escalation.”

“Holding off on retaliation now could allow for an operation when the time comes,” an Israeli official said.

The prime minister has yet to convene the Cabinet, but he is scheduled to meet foreign ambassadors on Monday and explain that while Israel is exercising restraint, it won’t allow rockets to be fired on civilians for much longer.

“The international community recognize Israel’s right to retaliate, but it isn’t rushing to sign off on an escalate response,” a source said. “Netanyahu wants to create a situation where Israel isn’t attacked in the international arena if such an escalation does occur.”

What keeps the Gaza missiles coming? Egypt bids for a truce. Netanyahu undecided.

DEBKAfile Special Report November 11, 2012, 11:35 PM (GMT+02:00)

Time is running out for a tough decision

The Palestinian missile offensive from Gaza was still going strong Sunday night, Nov. 11, after two days and more than 110 rockets – for a number of reasons, debkafile reports.  For one, Hamas can’t bring all the Palestinian militias ranged against Israel under a single operational command center contrary to its claim. The most important groups, the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami, the various Salafi extremist factions – some associated with al Qaeda – and the Popular Front all cling to their independence of action. Any Hamas order to hold their fire, if it were given, would be disobeyed. This defiance is eroding Hamas’authority as rulers of Gaza.
Furthermore, Hamas and fellow terrorist group leaders believe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is undecided about how to proceed in Gaza. They are counting on his being unable to bring himself to order a major military operation to cut them down to size and put a stop to the deadly cycle of a rocket barrage recurring every few days, year after year. And so the shooting goes on.

debkafile’s military sources report that Egyptian military intelligence chief Gen. Mohamed al-Assad entered the scene Sunday, Nov. 11 to try his hand at brokering yet another truce. He has his work cut out  – not just to bring the Gaza government and Israel together, but also to line up the rival factions of Gaza in concurrence.
The Egyptian general knows from past experience that the best he can achieve is a tacit, fragile truce to which Hamas and Israel acquiesce silently on the principle of reciprocity: both sides must hold their fire and if the Palestinian go back to violence, the IDF will hit back.

Similar arrangements have rarely held up in the past beyond a few weeks at most.  But this time, new elements have crept in. Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and his government, who until now stood in the wings of military activity, decided Sunday to pledge solidarity with the Palestinian missile jihad against Israel.
After all, the Islamist Hamas movement is dedicated by its charter to Israel’s destruction.
The view in Washington, which is involved in the chase for a truce, is that Haniyeh’s action promises that any ceasefire will be short-lived, measured in days rather than weeks.  Gaza’s rulers are convinced they are well placed to exploit the Israeli prime minister’s irresolution as he goes into a campaign for reelection (on Jan. 22, 2013) by turning up the heat on Israel.
But Netanyahu has another kind of pressure to consider. The million-strong constituency of southern Israel may not let him get away with a temporary, fragile stoppage of the rockets that make their lives unbearable. They may make him pay for inaction at the ballot-box.
Netanyahu must also take into consideration that a major IDF operation in Gaza might risk igniting two more war fronts, should Hamas’ allies Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah come to its aid.
Regarding Syria, Israel fired a Tamuz guided missile 4 kilometers into Syria as a warning to Damascus that Israel would not tolerate ordnance from the Syrian civil war continuing to fall on Israeli Golan. It was a warning shot after a shell landed in Moshav Alonei Bashan.
debkafile’s intelligence sources reveal that Damascus send back through UNDORF peacemakers a message of reassurance that the spillover into Israel would stop. Israel was given to understand that the mortar position responsible for the stray shell landing in the moshav had been silenced.
Our military sources note that the battery may have been silenced but it was not pulled back. In fact it remains in the same position as before. Therefore, it stands ready to fire in the event of a decision in Damascus to resume firing shells into Israel. Netanyahu is keeping a weather eye on that sector, as well as the Gaza front.