Thursday, March 06, 2008

Terror from the Gaza Strip: 24 February – 4 March 2008

During the first two months of 2008, there were 425 identified rocket hits in Israel's northwestern Negev region. An especially sharp escalation occurred in the five days from Feb. 27 – March 2, with 182 rockets (150 just over the weekend). This is an escalation in amount as well as in type: in addition to Kassam rockets, longer-range GRAD missiles were launched on Ashkelon, Netivot and the whole area (19 in this 5-day period). The escalation supposedly came as a result of Hamas's policy to increase rocket-launching after every significant IDF strike. In this case, after the IAF killed five Hamas operatives in Khan Yunis on Feb. 27, Hamas immediately launched 48 rockets at the western Negev.Ashkelon, with over 107,000 residents, is more densely built than Sderot, which has more open spaces. Therefore, rockets are likely to cause more damage there. Over 26,000 children go to school in Ashkelon.

The Education Ministry, at the request of the Home Front Command, dispatched 150 Education Corps soldiers to Ashkelon to assist at schools during emergencies. The soldiers will help children into shelters, give moral support to teachers and children alike and teach proper emergency procedures. Thirty Education Corps soldiers have been operating in Sderot since last Wednesday (27 Feb.).

Rocket Attacks on civilian targets:

4 March A rocket destroyed a house in Sderot in the early morning; no one was home. The Kassam attack was launched from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, located less than a mile away from Sderot.

3 March A seven-story apartment building in Ashkelon sustained a direct hit by a Grad missile. Three other buildings in the area were damaged by the blast. A number of Kassam rocket barrages hit elsewhere in the western Negev. All victims were taken to Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center (32 treated for trauma and four for light injuries). One little girl was injured by flying shrapnel. Three other children who were in the house at the time managed to reach the secure room in their home just before the missile hit. None of them were physically injured but all suffered emotional shock, as did a number of other residents.

A second Grad missile slammed into a playground, narrowly missing a nursery for toddlers under age 3. The nursery teacher told Voice of Israel government radio that the children were in the middle of eating breakfast when she heard the Color Red incoming rocket alert siren. The children's teachers managed to take them to a bomb shelter. No one was injured, but they had to calm down the hysterical toddlers.

2 March: 25 rockets; a Grad-type katyusha hit Netivot, near the grave of a holy man. Three Grads were fired at Ashkelon; two hit the city center, one hit a house. 5 people were lightly wounded, 15 treated for anxiety.
1 March (Shabbat): 22 wounded, property damage.
29 Feb (or 28): Three-yr.old Arab girl killed when a rocket (launched by Hamas terrorists) fell near her house (she was outside) in Bein Hanoun.
28 Feb: 20 rockets; 5 long-range rockets on Ashkelon; one hit Barzilai Hospital's helipad and two landed near the power station. Barzilai Hospital serves the entire region, including the Arab population; the power station supplies electricity to the region, including to parts of the Gaza Strip.

27 Feb. 48 rockets, half at Sderot. One hit Sapir College and killed student Roni Yihye, married and father of 4. He was the 14th victim of a rocket since the attacks began in 2004. Damage was caused to Sderot industrial zone.
25 Feb: One-year-old baby injured; 10-yr.old boy seriously injured in arm – doctors were able to save his arm with surgery.


IDF Activity
4 March The IAF attacked two rocket-launching terrorist cells in separate strikes (retaliation for the rocket that destroyed a house in Sderot an hour earlier). Soldiers confirmed hits on both cells. The IDF said the attacks targeted terrorists who were launching rockets at Israel from areas north of Jabalya and east of Gaza City. Two terrorists were killed.
The Security Cabinet was warned Monday that the Grad rockets used to attack Ashkelon came from Iran.

Security officials added that the Air Force has bombed out the largest explosives laboratory in the Gaza region.
28 Feb. – 3 Mar: The IDF conducted a four-day intensive military operation that eliminated more than 100 terrorists in Gaza between Thursday 28 February and Monday 3 March, when the ground forces withdrew. The IDF operation targeted facilities for manufacturing and storing weapons; the neighborhoods from which most of the rockets are launched; terrorist squads on their way to launch rockets; and Hamas institutions.

IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi told ministers that the IDF distributed notices in Gaza before the operation warning the civilian population in rocket-launching areas of the upcoming attacks.

Ashkenazi told ministers: "In one incident we saw an elderly Palestinian leaving Jabaliya with a wagon, in which was hidden a Grad missile. He stopped 'as if coincidentally' next to an orchard. Two militants then arrived there, took the missile, positioned it on the launcher - and fired."

The IDF chief added that despite the operation, the IDF would continue its efforts to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and ensure a regular supply of food and medicines though the border crossings.

3 March An Israeli missile struck a rocket launch squad near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing one man. A second missile struck a donkey cart loaded with rockets.

Friday night (29 Feb.): Infantry, armored and engineering corps, with air support, began operations in northern Gaza Strip – Sejaiya neighborhood in Gaza City and Jabalya refugee camp. Troops also searched for arms, including in private houses. This was a limited operation, not the major operation that has been expected.
On Shabbat, 1 March, two soldiers were killed, Staff Sergeant Eran Dan-Gur and Staff Sergeant Doron Asulin, both 20 and both of the Givati Brigade. Seven soldiers were wounded.

28 Feb: IAF made 23 air attacks on terrorist targets, mostly Hamas. One attack was on a truck carrying 160 rockets. Also targeted were structures that housed Hamas institutions, such as Haniya's offices and police stations.

24 Feb: In the southern Gaza Strip, IDF exposed five smuggling tunnels and detained 40 operatives suspected of terrorist activities. During the operation there were exchanges of fire with armed terrorists in the region. Near Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, IAF attacked rocket launchers and armed terrorists moving towards the security fence in central Gaza. (IDF Spokesperson's website)


Hamas calls for civilians to be "human shields" (IICC Terrorism information Center report)

Al-Aqsa TV called upon civilians to form a human shield around houses that the IDF had threatened to blow up:
• the home of Abu al-Hatal in Sajaiya or al-Sha'af neighborhood (1 March).
• the northern Gaza Strip house of shaheed Othman al-Ruziana (29 Feb.);
• the house of Ma'amoun Abu Amer in Khan Yunis (an hour later, dozens of Khan Yunis residents were reported to have gathered on the roof of Abu Amer's house – Pal-today website, 28 Feb.);
• the northern Gaza Strip house of shaheed Musab al-Jaabir (29 Feb.);

Hamas PM Ismail Haniya boasted that hundreds and thousands of Palestinians had left their homes in the middle of the night and gone up on the roofs of the houses that the Israeli "occupation" had threatened to blow up (Aljazeera TV, 29 Feb.).

Minister for Public Security, Avi Dichter (3 March): "In a state of war with a terror entity we must not shirk from hitting terrorists who try to carry out a terror attack from within an envelope of civilians. Civilians who provide a human shield for terrorists are terrorists, plain and simple."

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