Thursday, April 17, 2008

Hamas Ramping Up Terror Activity


Avi Tuchmayer

A senior IDF official said Wednesday that since the end of "Operation Warm Winter" in January, the Hamas terror organization has expanded its anti-Israel terror activity.

"Every day there are attempts to plant roadside bombs, shots fired at IDF patrols and at Israeli civilians working in the fields near the Gaza border fence, in addition to the ongoing Kassam and mortar fire (at Sderot and the western Negev region)," said the official. "In light of these figures we see a picture that the gains we made during Operation Warm Winter have ended and that Hamas is trying with all it's might to restore it's position of power," he added.

At the same time, the officer said, "The IDF has ramped up its activities, especially with regard to security near the Gaza separation fence."

Speaking about the incident in which three IDF soldiers were killed Wednesday, the senior official said, "The soldiers did well in their attempt to establish communication with the terrorists. This is a complicated war in which the terror organizations have also suffered severe losses. We are expending a great deal of effort, but we cannot guarantee 100 percent that all these events will end up with no casualties.

The officer added that he did not believe troops were ambushed this morning, but rather that the terrorists employed a useful lookout point from a civilian building in Gaza and successfully fired on the Golani troops from just 100 meters away.

"At the same time," he said, "we will continue to act as we see fit," he said.

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