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Israel will target other Hamas leaders
While Europe wobbles, Israel stands firm
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that other Hamas leaders would be targeted now that Israel has assassinated Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. "If we will continue, in a determined way, with our strikes against Hamas and other terror groups, with the means I outlined, including action against those leaders, we will bring more security to Israeli citizens," he said.
Just a suggestion, not that he reads Rantburg, but they should follow quickly — like try to bump off three in a week. That'll sheikh 'em up pretty nice. And brag about what good inside info you have. You'll know you're successful when the shooting starts.
Defense chiefs have decided to try to kill the entire Hamas leadership, security sources said Tuesday, a day after Israel assassinated the sheikh. The defense chiefs decided during a five-hour meeting Monday to step up targeted attacks, the sources said. They said officials decided to go after the entire leadership without waiting for another attack by Hamas.
Ex-x-x-x-x-cellent!
Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said Tuesday that no Palestinian terror leader was immune from an Israeli attack. "Anyone who is involved in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank or anywhere else in leading a terror group knows from yesterday there is no immunity," Likud MK Hanegbi told reporters. "Everyone is in our sights."
Excellent news!
"There is no immunity to anyone. And that means anyone to the last person," he said. Hanegbi did not give any names, but said the list of militant leaders marked for death included "those who appear on television," a veiled reference to senior Hamas officials Abdel Aziz Rantissi and Mahmoud al-Zahar. IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s response to the assassination showed that "they understand that their turn is drawing near."
Cause meet effect!
Nice to know Nasrallah's on the list. Wonder if Mullah Fudlullah's gotten himself off the list by deciding to be a simple holy man...
Both Hanegbi and the director of Military Intelligence, Major General Aharon Zeevi, denied any link between the killing, which Hamas and other militant groups have vowed to avenge, and any future terror attacks. Zeevi said he does not believe that the assassination of Yassin will lead to a significant rise in terror attacks, Army Radio reported Tuesday.
Thats my opinion too. There is nothing to indicate that Hamas has any additional capability they have not used to date.
The assassination of the Hamas leader has dealt a severe blow to the militant organization and will help prevent the founding of "Hamas-land" in Gaza, Yaalon said Tuesday.
These guys must be reading RB and realizing the power of pithy monikers.
"Even if in the short term, the assassination increases the motivation to carry out terror attacks, in the long run, the assassination is likely to calm the situation in the Gaza Strip and encourage moderate forces to prevent the founding of ’Hamas-land’ in the Strip," he said. "Yassin was neither, and I should like to stress it, was neither a political nor a religious leader," said Yaalon.
HaHa! You mean he is not a ’spiritual leader’ after all! Surprise meter just did nothing. Got to get one of those new digital models.
"Ahmed Yassin was a terrorist who headed a terrorist organization which operates against the State of Israel and its citizens. Yassin was directly responsible for multiple terror attacks, resulting in the deaths of both Israeli and foreign civilians and security personnel."
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Hezbollah militants abandoned their posts overnight for fear of an Israeli reprisal, Army Radio reported Tuesday. The IDF Northern Command decided Tuesday that it would respond if Hezbollah continues to shell the northern border, Israel Radio reported. The army says it expects Lebanon to restrain Hezbollah, as it did during the war in Iraq and in Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank in 2001, when it set up barriers in the south of the country to prevent militants from approaching the border fence. Hamas, Hezbollah and Arafat’s Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade have all vowed revenge for the assassination. The Hamas military wing, Iz a Din al-Kassam, announced it would avenge the killing both in Israel and overseas. "Ariel Sharon gave the order to kill hundreds of Zionists on every street, in every city and everywhere in the occupied lands," it said in a statement.
If Israel ever gets into ’dire revenge’ there will be so many bodies on the streets of Gaza you will not be able to count them.
Posted by: phil_b 2004-03-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=28882