A lethal holiday

Thursday, September 30, 2004

he Qassams that were frustrating yesterday morning, became deadly yesterday afternoon, killing two small children when they crashed through the roof of a Sderot apartment, and prompting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to order the army to send increasing numbers of troops into Gaza in an effort to halt the Qassarm rocket fire.

Overnight and into this morning, at least a dozen Palestinians and one Israeli were killed as the troops swarmed into northern Gaza, encountering some resistance. There are some reports the army might call up reserves to send into Gaza, but there are no expectations for a full scale invasion of Gaza along the lines of the March 2002 'Operation Defensive Shield.'

The goddess loves -- Mixed media on paper, 50x70 cm by Silvia Rosenberg

nstead, the army will take control over the northeast corner of Gaza, from which the Qassams are fired at Sderot in the western Negev. There were some Israeli successes last night - helicopter attacks last night managed to strike a Qassam launching crew, and also hit an Islamic Jihad charity office. But there is no guarantee that the rockets won't continue to fall on the ordinarily sleepy town that has seen more than 450 rockets land in or around it over the last two years.

There is no doubt the Hamas is interested in as much turmoil as possible to force Israel to turn its planned disengagement into a rout, and to prevent any coordination between Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian security that might contribute to an orderly transfer of Gaza. Israel Radio's usually reliable Palestinian affairs reporter Avi Issacharoff reported this morning that there are reports that Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officers were meeting this week in Caior, discussing just such security arrangements. There was no confirmation from Israeli sources.

And the warring in the south was taking place on Sukkot, which for most Israelis meant holidaying that will last through the weekend - and then another long weekend comes next week, when Simhat Torah falls on Wednesday, again resulting in a long, long weekend. The total cost of a month of truncated business weeks might be evened out by domestic spending on the holidaying - hotels from north to south were booked solid, with not a room to be had.

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