Today's Situation

GOING TO GAZA, September 26, 2007

The Sukkot holiday means that there are no Israeli newspapers on Thursday, but Internet sites continue to report on significant regional events.

The main story that is being covered by the websites is the death in Gaza of at least 11 Palestinians - including seven militants - in three separate incidents on Wednesday and Thursday morning.

According to the Haaretz website, an IAF strike on a car traveling in the Zeitoun neighborhood Gaza City killed five Army of Islam militants on Wednesday night. According to the IDF, the car was carrying militants and rockets that were ready to be launched at Israel. Also on Wednesday, four Palestinians were killed by an IDF shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun. On Thursday morning, two Hamas militants were killed early Thursday in an Israel Air Force strike near Beit Hanun.

The increased IDF activity in Gaza comes after Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday that Israel was moving closer to carrying out a large-scale military operation in Gaza in order to put a stop to cross-border rocket and mortar barrages into Israel. It was Barak's first public hint of plans to combat the fire coming from the Hamas-ruled coastal strip, which Israel last week declared 'hostile territory' as a prelude to possible punitive cuts of utilities.

Barak told Army Radio that a large-scale military operation would not be a simple undertaking. 'We are moving closer to a broad and complex operation in Gaza,' he said. 'It (such an operation) hasn't happened in recent weeks for many reasons .... We're getting closer to this and it should be realized that such an operation is not simple, not from the point of view of the forces taking part, not from the aspect of the length of time we'll have to spend there and not from the aspect of the operational challenges the forces will meet.'

On the Palestinian side, several groups claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on an IDF position at Kerem Shalom. No one was injured in the attack.

Elsewhere, Ynet reports that former First Lady and leading Democratic president candidate Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she supports an alleged Israeli air strike on September 6, which - according to foreign news reports - destroyed a Syrian nuclear facility built with the help of North Korea. In an MSNBC debate Wednesday, Clinton said that the United States believed Syria has been receiving technological aid from North Korea in an attempt to build a nuclear facility and that Israel has eliminated that facility.

Clinton's comments appear to be backed up by those of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who said that the target of the air strike in was either a joint nuclear or missile facility with North Korea. 'I am definitely hearing it from U.S. and Israeli sources,' Bolton said in an interview. 'The information is very closely held. What the Israelis struck I cannot say; whether a nuclear or missile facility is not clear,' Bolton added.

He offered the possibility it was a joint research venture or simply a North Korea facility located in Syria. 'Any of these options is enough to show proliferation by the North Koreans and that is very dangerous,' he said.

He ruled out other theories, meanwhile, including the target was Iranian missiles to be shipped to Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon for attacks on Israel or that Israel was testing Syria's air defenses. 'I don't think the Israelis would have taken the risk unless it was a very high-value target,' Bolton said.

In the meantime, preparations continue for the planned summit of Middle East leaders in Washington in November. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister urged Israel to freeze construction in West Bank settlements and work on the separation fence in order to attract Arab states to the conference. But speaking to a group of journalists, Prince Saud al-Faisal stopped short of saying the Arabs would not attend the conference if Israel refused to take such measures.

Also Wednesday, Syria - which has not yet been invited to attend the conference - said it was 'studying the situation.'

'The failure of this meeting will have dangerous consequences on the region,' Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told Al-Jazeera television in an interview in New York. 'If the goal was not to bring just and comprehensive peace in the region... I believe that attending that meeting would be a risk.'

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