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Israel vows to crush Hamas
Events posted previously deleted.
Israel launched a "crushing" retaliation Saturday against Hamas in Gaza with deadly airstrikes, troops massed at the border and a planned ground incursion after terrorists militants fired 35 rockets at Israeli towns — their first major attack since the Gaza pullout. Israeli aircraft pounded suspected weapons facilities and other terrorist militant targets throughout the Gaza Strip late Saturday and early Sunday, wounding at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said. Earlier, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at cars carrying terrorists militants in Gaza City, killing two Hamas militants.

The escalation threatened to derail a shaky seven-month-old truce and quashed hopes that Israel's ceding the coastal strip to the Palestinians would invigorate peacemaking. Israel's reprisals drew new Hamas threats of revenge, while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas came under growing Israeli pressure to confront the terrorists militants. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told security chiefs in a meeting that "the ground of Gaza should shake" ...
Fatima, did the earth move for you, too?
... and that he wanted to exact a high price from Palestinians everywhere, not just the terrorists militants, participants said.
Sounds almost Jacksonian.
The crisis erupted just before a major challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's leadership in his hardline Likud Party, and could strengthen the hand of Sharon's main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has warned the Gaza pullout endangers Israel. A Likud vote Monday could determine whether Sharon quits the party — a move that would likely bring early elections and prompt Sharon to form a new centrist party to capture mainstream voters.

On Saturday evening, Sharon convened his Security Cabinet, a group of senior ministers, to approve a series of military operations proposed by Mofaz, culminating with a ground incursion into Gaza. Security officials said that "Operation First Rain" would include artillery fire, air strikes and other targeted attacks. The operation will grow in intensity, leading up to a ground operation unless the Palestinian security takes action to halt the rocket attacks or Hamas ends the attacks itself. The ground operation would require final approval from the full Cabinet, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicize the operation's details. The officials said the army planned to create a buffer zone in northern Gaza by ordering residents to leave their homes, and said a closure barring Palestinian laborers from entering Israel would remain in effect.

Shortly after the Security Cabinet's meeting, Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets throughout Gaza, including three weapons-storage facilities and a Gaza City school that the army said served as a front for Hamas. Other targets included the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small terrorists militant group. The Popular Resistance Committees, another terrorist armed group, said the home of one of its commanders was targeted. The commander, Amer Karmout, survived the attack but two relatives were wounded, the group said.
Darn.
Pray for sepsis.
Israeli military officials said the attacks were aimed at any group possessing weapons. But the offensive was focused on Hamas, the largest Palestinian terrorist militant group. The Gaza City air strike caused heavy damage to the Al-Arkam school, which was founded by Yassin. The army said Hamas used the building to raise funds for attacks, recruit terrorists militants and assist families of suicide bombers. The attack occurred in a crowded neighborhood, damaging at least five nearby homes. Fifteen people were lightly wounded, medical officials said.
I don't care.
"It was decided to launch a prolonged and constant attack on Hamas," said Maj. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, the army's head of operations, hinting that Israel was preparing to resume targeted attacks against top Hamas leaders. Asked whether the leaders were in danger, he said: "Let them decide for themselves."

Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa called the Israeli retaliation plan a "serious escalation that will lead to a new era of violence."
Unlike Paleo violence which never does.
A statement from Kofi Annan's office said the U.N. Secretary-General was "alarmed" by the escalating violence between Israel and armed Palestinian factions.
He's alarmed that Israel is striking back.
A senior Palestinian security official said the Jebaliya deaths were caused by a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded as a result of friction and in turn ignited about 10 other grenades on the back of a truck. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he's afraid of being killed of the sensitivity of the investigation.
You rub two sticks together to make a fire, not two RPGs.
Hamas called Abbas' position "a stab in the back of the martyrs" and a blow to efforts to work out differences between the factions. Abbas has been trying to co-opt Hamas and has rejected calls by Israel and the international community to confront and disarm the terrorists militants.

Farhad's mother, known as Um Nidal, said all three of her sons have been killed in fighting with the Israelis. "I am so proud," she said. "I wish I had more sons to offer."
Here's a candidate for the Spay & Neuter Clinic.
Hamas vowed to avenge the attack, calling on its terrorists militants in a statement to strike Israel "in every spot of our occupied land." At least four more rockets fell in Israel after the airstrike.
"We shall have Dire Revenge™!"
The Israeli army said it targeted two Hamas vehicles — one carrying weapons and the other carrying terrorists militants. The strikes signaled a resumption of Israeli targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists militants, a practice it suspended during the truce. During more than four years of fighting, Israel killed scores of terrorists militants and bystanders in such attacks.
Posted by: Jackal 2005-09-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=130503