In a controlled incursion into Gaza, the IDF went into the North Gaza town of Beit Hanoun today, surrounding the town and gathering the residents for questioning.
As I write, the IDF has encircled two mosques in Beit Hanoun and are demanding the surrender of 50-60 armed Palestinian terrorists trapped like rats inside, most of them members of Hamas’ `special intervention force' and the allied Popular Resistance Committee.
According to the Palestinians four jihadi gunmen were killed in two separate incidents today, one in Beit Hanoun and one west of Jabalia. They were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades – the military wing of `moderate' Abbas' Fatah and Hamas.
Over 20 jihadis have been permanently taken out of circulation by the IDF since the new offensive - dubbed `Operation Autumn Clouds' began. The offensive is designed, yet again, to try and halt the flow of heavy weapons into Gaza and to end the qassam rocket fire into Israel. yesterday, one of them scored a direct hit on a house an injured an Israeli woman.
According to the IDF, there were several gun battles between terrorists and the IDF forces this afternoon and evening. In some of the firefights, the Palestinians attempted to launch antitank missiles, similar to what the IDF faced in Lebanon.
Some of these are Russian in origin, the Metis-M9, and have been supplied by Russia to Hezbollah via Iran and Syria.
In a seperate development, Hamas has begun to fire rockets from the Palestinian occupied parts of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) at Israeli targets.The Salah a-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees announced that it had fired a short-range Nasser 1 rocket (a qassam) at the Israeli community of Migdalim, just east of Ariel in Samaria.
There has been a lot of talk inIsraeli intel circles about the Palestinians smuggling rockets and heavy weapons from the wide open Gaza borders to the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria...closer to Israel's main population centers.
As I wrote almost three years ago, walls may help in the short term, but inthe long term they're useless. It's too easy to breach them, shoot over them or tunnel under them.
Hamas is trying to to establish bases to launch missiles in Judea and Samaria similar to what exists along the Gaza Strip security fence. It's just a matter of time before that becomes a reality for the Israelis to deal with.
The Israelis pulled out of Gaza with idea that the Palestinians might just decide, for once to forego violence and concentrate on making the lives of their people a little better. What's happened since should be a real lesson to anyone who still thinks that what these people want is a peaceful state living next door to Israel!
Eventually, the Israelis are going to have to stop the flow of weapons where in begins..in Gaza, which will mean a major offensive strike. And that will not sit well with proponents of a second Arab Palestinian state.
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