Asta va fi situatia pana cand palestinienii vor primi niste rachete mai moderne, cu raza de actiune mai mare dela iranieni sau poate chiar direct dela rusi, chinezi sau Nord Koreeni..... Pe care sa le poata lansa nu numai din nordul Gazei, ci din orice alt loc. Mai ales acum ca Hamas-ul castigand o parte din alegerile din Palestina, va pune si el umarul pentru niste rachete mai ca lumea. Israelul trebue sa gaseasca o solutie pentru domolirea conflictului. Dupa mine este o gresala daca se cere acest lucru Palestinei. Palestinienii, si asa nu au ce pierde in nici o situatie, oricum nu au nimic....Dar Israelul ? |
Israel to enforce off-limits zone in northern Gaza Strip
By Amos Harel, Aluf Benn and Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
Israel will enforce a new off-limits zone in the Gaza Strip with artillery, helicopter and gunboat fire, its latest response to rocket attacks on Israeli towns, defense officials said.
If enforced, the aerial barrage would mark some of Israel's toughest military action in Gaza since it withdrew from the coastal strip in September.
Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said the no-go zone was part of Israel's stepped up response to the rocket fire. Israel has already launched missiles and artillery fire at suspected launching areas and killed several militants in recent months.
Increased helicopter fire will aim at keeping Palestinians from entering the ruins of three settlements in northern Gaza that are frequently used as launch sites for the rockets.
Israel hopes the Palestinians "will get the message and that this will stop the rocket squads," Boim told Israel Radio. "If we must, we will have to tighten the screw further."
But Boim ruled out a major ground offensive in Gaza. He also acknowledged the homemade Qassam rockets, which are highly inaccurate, do not pose a strategic threat to Israel.
The "no-go zone" will be 1.5 miles deep and run along the northern and eastern edges of Gaza, defense officials said. Gaza is about 25 miles long and six miles wide. The officials said the areas are uninhabited, though they include Palestinian farmland.
Palestinian officials on Friday promised to send in more security forces to the border area to prevent the rocket attacks.
Abbas, who has ignored previous Israeli calls to crack down on militants, has ordered the deployment of additional security forces along the border in a bid to restore calm, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Some security officials suggested on Friday that the Israel Defense Forces should target civilian areas in the Gaza Strip as part of its attempt to halt Qassam rocket fire.
The comments came a day after Israel decided to step up its targeted killings of senior Islamic Jihad officials in response to recent Qassam fire. The IDF on Thursday unleashed a massive artillery barrage in response to a Qassam rocket attack earlier in the day that lightly wounded four IDF soldiers at an army base near the Gaza border.
Boim told Army Radio on Friday that Israel might fire artillery shells toward populated areas of the Gaza Strip as opposed to open fields, as the IDF has been doing until now in response to Qassam rocket fire.
"We need to tell the residents of Beit Hanun, Beit Lahia, and the suburbs of Jabaliya: 'In 12 hours, artillery will land in the area, evacuate these areas,'" he said. "I think one operation of this sort can solve the problem."
MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said Friday that he would not rule out cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip for an hour following each rocket attack, or a full day following an attack that causes casualties.
"It can't be that they fire at us from there and we provide electricity," he told Israel Radio.
Former IDF chief of staff Dan Shomron dismissed potential complaints against collective punishment, saying Israel has no other choice.
"We must tell residents of the Strip that anywhere where there is preparation for firing Qassams, including logistical preparation, automatically constitutes a target for the IDF, and we suggest that the residents get away from these places because we will attack them," Shomron told Israel Radio on Friday.
However, a government source said that while Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was "wavering" over the idea during a meeting on Wednesday, senior IDF officials strongly opposed it, arguing that it constituted collective punishment and would be hard to justify. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz also opposes the idea.
As a result, it has been rejected for now, but will be discussed again if the escalation continues, the officials said.
The main reason that Israel is thus far keeping its response to the Qassams relatively mild is next month's parliamentary elections in the Palestinian Authority: Israel fears that harsh measures, such as a major ground operation, would endanger PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' continued rule and could even push him to resign - something that some Israeli intelligence agencies believe he is close to doing anyway.
However, IDF sources admitted that the current measures are unlikely to stop the Qassams completely, because Islamic Jihad, unlike Hamas, is not running in the elections and is therefore relatively immune to pressure from the Palestinian public.
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Nr. 3513 de sambata, 24 decembrie 2005
Dezvaluirile anului 2005 (428 afisari) 
