Today's Situation

SDEROT UNDER FIRE , May 16, 2007

In what many Israeli commentators are seeing as an attempt to divert attention away from the clashes inside the Gaza Strip, Hamas yesterday launched a new Qassam offensive against the Negev town of Sderot.

On Tuesday, after over a dozen Hamas and Fateh men were killed in various incidents in Gaza and at the Karni border crossing, Hamas launched close to 20 of the homemade rockets at Sderot, injuring at least four people.

Despite an overnight agreement between the warring factions, the violence started afresh on Wednesday morning, with Army Radio reporting that Hamas killed six bodyguards in a raid on the home of a leading Fateh member and Mahmoud Abbas loyalist. According to the report, armed Hamas gunmen stormed the home of Rashid Abu Shebak, the head of the Authority's Internal Security force, killing six and injuring 10 others. Abu Shebak was not at home at the time of the attack.

And just as the violence on the Palestinian side of the border shows no sign of abating, so the Qassam rockets that rained down on Sderot on Tuesday continued to fall on Wednesday.

According to Israel Radio, at least eight rockets were fired on Wednesday morning, although one landed inside Gaza. According to Arutz 7, one of the rockets hit a house adjacent to that of Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who is a long-time resident of the city. The property was damaged but there were no injuries.

A second rocket landed in the basketball court of a kibbutz near Ashkelon, while the rest landed in open areas near Sderot and Ashkelon. No injuries were reported in these attacks either.

School in Sderot has been cancelled for Wednesday and residents are being asked to follow breaking security developments as they are reported in the news.

Israel Air Force helicopters were ordered to northern Gaza but Peretz announced that the IDF will respond to rocket attacks by firing on empty fields, according to NRG, the website of Maariv. The fire, he explained, will prevent terrorists from using the fields to launch rockets.

Peretz told reporters Wednesday, while observing an IDF exercise in the north, that "Israel has no intention of intervening in the internal clashes in [the Gaza] Strip, but we are not going to tolerate that these clashes will impact the security of Israeli residents; these events will reap a suitable response."

Peretz comments echoed the reports in Yedioth Ahronoth and elsewhere, which claim that Israel has decided to escalate its operations in and around Gaza, but not significantly. The paper says that government sources insist that the current rules of engagement in Gaza will remain in force, but if the IDF spots specific targets that exceed these limits, it will be able to ask Olmert and Peretz for special approval for a strike. Consequently, a slight but not major escalation in the IDF's offensive operations is likely, security sources said.

Haaretz adds that the diplomatic-security cabinet will meet this coming Sunday to discuss Israel's policy toward Gaza, against the backdrop of ' a debate within Israel's security establishment over to what degree Israel should help Fateh in its internal struggle against Hamas by allowing transfers of arms and ammunition to it from third parties. Thus far, Israel has refused to do so, despite America's urging.'

One view is that, since has already won in Gaza, there is no point in arming Fateh, and that any weapons sent into Gaza will eventually be used against Israel. The opposing camp says that Israel should come to Abu Mazin's aid, since it is partially responsible for the military edge that Hamas enjoys.

All three television channels carried special broadcasts from Sderot on Wednesday morning, highlighting the sense of emergency that that this latest barrage of Qassams has created. On Channel 2, the Minister for Strategic Threats, Avigdor Lieberman, said the government has no excuse for the Qassam rocket attacks on Israel because it has had seven years to figure out how to stop them. He added that the growing Hamas army, and not the Qassam rockets, poses a strategic threat on Israel, warning also that Hamas' army is larger than Hizbollah's was this time last year.

National Union-NRP MK told Channel 10 that Hamas has been intensifying rocket attacks against Israel it understood the Israeli government was weak and unable to launch a tough response. 'Hamas understands that Israel has no government and there is no one to fight them,' Eldad said

His Knesset colleague, MK Uri Ariel, told Army Radio that the Olmert government was guilty of "criminal recklessness" by not retaliating against continuing Qassam rocket attacks.

There was also criticism of the prime minister from within his own Kadima party, as MK Shai Hermesh told Israel Radio that government has done nothing to carry out promises made in January to reinforce Sderot homes and provide adequate bomb shelters. Hermesh alleged that the government is only at the survey stage of the project and noted that Sderot residents often have been ordered to enter bomb shelters that do not exist.

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