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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Israel launches missile strike on Hamas, closes borders |
| 2005-09-24 |
| Israel killed four Hamas Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called his Security Cabinet for a meeting later Saturday to approve the military action, expected to last several days. A large-scale operation appeared unlikely but the timing of the meeting suggested a sense of urgency. The Cabinet session comes as Sharon faces a major leadership challenge in his Likud Party over the Gaza withdrawal, completed two weeks ago. Sharon's challenger, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned the pullout will endanger Israel, and the barrage of 39 rockets, with five Israelis wounded, could boost his agenda. The escalation followed an explosion Friday at a Hamas rally at a crowded Palestinian refugee camp that killed at least 15 Palestinians. Witnesses said the blast went off near a pickup truck carrying masked In its struggle to bring order to Gaza, the Palestinian Authority won agreement from Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz met Saturday with the army chief and the head of the Shin Bet security service to formulate Israel's response. "We have to make it clear to the Palestinians that Israel will not let the recent events pass without a response," Mofaz said in a statement. "The response needs to be crushing." Mofaz ordered large numbers of ground forces to deploy near northern Gaza, from where most rockets have been launched. Security officials said thousands of soldiers have been called up. On Saturday afternoon, Israeli aircraft fired five missiles at two cars in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, killing four Hamas Of course, all the attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups didn't threaten the truce at all. In an unprecedented step, Israel also set up five artillery cannons on the Gaza border, guarded by seven armored personnel carriers. Soldiers appeared to be settling in, building a command post and rolling out barbed wire. Israel in the past retaliated for Palestinian rocket fire with airstrikes or ground incursions. Artillery fire is less precise, however, and artillery shells fired into densely populated Gaza could cause many casualties. [Tap][Tap]. Nope. Sympathy meter still reads zero. Israel appeared to be signaling it is determined to stop the rocket fire at any price. At another border staging area, four armored personnel carriers, five tanks and four huge D-9 bulldozers I guess they meant it when they said "crushing response." Friday's explosion brought a terrifying end to what became the last About 10,000 mourners attended prayers for 10 of the dead at a Jebaliya mosque Saturday. After the ceremony, the crowd split into three processions, with Hamas holding a separate march for four of its dead. Gunmen shot in the air, and women watching from balconies threw rice into the crowd. The deadly rally appeared to put Hamas on the defensive for the first time since the Israeli withdrawal; it also gave Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas greater leverage to enforce the weapons ban. Not that he has any desire to. Islamic Nope. Still reads zero. Many Gazans also had hoped for a return to calm after Israel's pullout and might not be willing to tolerate a new era of airstrikes. Abbas, meanwhile, is under growing pressure to stop the rocket fire, with Israel demanding he deploy his troops in northern Gaza, the favored rocket launching ground. This could force Abbas into confrontations with Hamas that he has been trying to avoid. |
| Posted by:Jackal |
| #6 Gee, y'mean the're going to be held collectively responsible for the acts of their "nation"? What a concept. |
| Posted by: mojo 2005-09-24 22:08 |
| #5 Anonymouse - spot on. In the first Gulf War, the Iraqi artillery crews typically were able to get off one round before they were destroyed by counter-battery fire. That was almost fifteen years ago and counter-battery tech has undoubtably gotten better. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2005-09-24 21:32 |
| #4 This is what could be called a standard tactic: counter-battery fire. The idea is to get an artillery round in the air as soon as radar pick up an incoming rocket, triangulating for its launch point. At first it will take out one or two slower rocket crews. Then it will take out the launcher. The bad guyz will then surround the launcher with victims, hoping for sympathy against the c-b fires, but they will run out of victims real quick. The c-b fires, as they become less effective, may turn into time-on-target fires from several batteries at once, crunching anything within 20 yards of the target. At *that* point, the locals start objecting to someone setting up a rocket launcher in their neighborhood. As long as the Israelis keep up a quid pro quo exchange, they can laugh off any international condemnation. And, of course, just because they use c-b doesn't mean they can't use other tactics at the same time. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-24 20:10 |
| #3 If a bon on openly displaying weapons is considered a step on the roadmap then we need to reboot Mapquest. I think think this path is a cul-de-sac. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2005-09-24 19:28 |
| #2 If Gazans wanted a "return to calm", a Hamas military parade and rocket attacks on Israel were not their best choices. Ariel Sharon's Gaza strategy is working -- the target is provoking, sealed, Israeli-free, and ready for obliteration. Fire away. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2005-09-24 17:39 |
| #1 Many Gazans also had hoped for a return to calm after Israel's pullout and might not be willing to tolerate a new era of airstrikes ROFLMAO - I mean uh oh. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-09-24 16:42 |