Four Kassam Rockets Fired At Sderot

Jerusalem – After a relatively calm week, four Kassam rockets were fired on Saturday at Sderot and other Gaza periphery communities. Two children suffered from shock. One of the rockets landed in a wooded area near the Sderot cemetery.

The other rockets landed in open fields. Two Israeli children, one age 10 and the other 16, were in the area that the rocket struck, suffered from shock and were taken to Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

Three mayors from the Gaza perimeter – Alon Schuster of Shaar Hanegev, Yair Farjun of Hof Ashkelon and Haim Yellin of Eshkol – met this week with Prime Minister’s Office Director General Raanan Dinur in order to present their demands with regard to fortifications.

In the meeting, Mr. Dinur said that there was an option of partially fortifying the homes within a year, or fully fortifying them with security rooms within four years. The mayors demanded in the meeting that the communities be fully fortified immediately.

Hamas Seeks To Accelerate Military Development

A report by an Israeli government security agency said Hamas blew up major parts of the 12-kilometer border wall with Egypt on Jan. 23 in an attempt to expand the flow of military equipment to the Gaza Strip. The report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which can be viewed at www.intelligence.org.il, asserted that the Hamas army had sought advanced weapons, particularly those that could down helicopters, to prepare for a war against Israel.

“The collapse of the fence created a new security situation on the ground by making it much easier to smuggle large quantities of weapons which may upset the ongoing balance with Hamas – such as anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles,” the report said.

The report said Hamas and other Palestinian insurgency groups have imported terrorists and weapons without any restrictions into the Gaza from Egypt. The center said Hamas, which took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007, planned the border attack for months.

“With the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Egypt breached, Hamas and other terrorist organizations can freely smuggle operatives and weapons into the Gaza Strip and dispatch terrorists to Israel through Sinai,” the report said.

The report stated that Hamas’ main objectives included the lifting of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, enhancement of Hamas missile capability, acceleration of the military buildup and pressure on Egypt to support the Islamic regime against the Palestinian Authority. Hamas was said to have achieved most of its goals already.

“In our assessment, any solution reached will mean Hamas control of the crossing into Egypt, the Gaza Strip’s ‘oxygen tube,'” the report said.

The report also asserted that the destruction of the Gaza-Sinai border constituted a “clear and present security threat” for Israel.

Without border security, Hamas was expected to accelerate weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

“In addition, it will be relatively easy for the terrorist organizations to dispatch squads into Israel through the wide-open Israel-Egyptian border from the Gaza Strip to Eilat,” the report said. “The collapse of the border fence enabled the Palestinian terrorist organizations to freely smuggle weapons and terrorist operatives into the Gaza Strip, including advanced weapons, and no longer need the extensive network of tunnels constructed under the Philadelphi route.”

Hamas Assembles Attack Vehicles

The Middle East NewsLine has confirmed that Hamas has assembled combat vehicles for its war against Israel.

Palestinian sources said the vehicles contained mounts for heavy machine guns and that the vehicles have been used in fighting Israeli troops, mainly battle tanks and attack helicopters deployed in the Gaza Strip.

“The combat vehicles are makeshift, but they have been effective in pinning down Israeli forces,” a Palestinian source said.

The Hamas regime has sought to enhance its new military, said to consist of more than 10,000 fighters. The Hamas military contains mortars, anti-tank rockets, anti-aircraft systems, machine guns, communications and night vision systems.

Over the last year, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have assembled weapons systems on pickup trucks in an effort to increase mobility. They included the mounting of a 12-tube rocket system for rapid fire into Israel.

The sources said the latest vehicles were also used to direct heavy machine-gun fire toward Israeli helicopters. They said some of the Russian-origin machine guns were acquired by the Palestinian Authority a decade ago. Israeli military sources said that Hamas, trained by the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah, has become capable of firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. The sources said Hamas has accelerated missile production, coordinated operations by launch squads and established a logistics network to ensure large-scale salvos.

“The days when Hamas could fire only five or 10 missiles a day are over,” a military source said. “Hamas has demonstrated its capability to fire up to 100 Kassams a day.”

In mid-January, Hamas fired 130 Kassam-class, short-range missiles in less than 72 hours. The sources said the heavy fire, amid Israeli air and ground strikes, demonstrated Hamas’ ability to stockpile missiles, rapidly deploy them to launch sites and coordinate operations.

Hamas has overcome several technical hurdles that prevented sustained missile fire. They cited the production of standard explosives, which could be stored for long periods, and the import of standard fuses.

At the same time, Hamas has extended the range of the Kassam to about 18 kilometers, enabling sustained attacks on the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon.

Winograd Committee Members To Go Public

A source close to the Winograd Committee, which investigated the Israeli government and military function during the 2006 Lebanon War, told The Bulletin yesterday: “The report is harsher than the way people have interpreted it. The political establishment interpreted the report leniently out of the wrong motives. Politicians have not understood the report’s severity.”

Before the committee’s report about the Lebanon War was published, the committee members decided not to be interviewed by the media. They wanted the report they wrote to speak for itself. But over the weekend, after they saw the political establishment’s response, the first cracks appeared in the decision.

The first member who intends to go to the media and be interviewed is Prof. Yehezkel Dror. It appears that he will do so this week.

In his first public statement, Mr. Dror told the Israeli media: “Serious reporters and serious politicians must read the report in its entirety. I expect anyone who takes the state of Israel seriously to read the report and not formulate positions based only on parts of it. I expect that politicians will be capable of reading a report written in non-mathematical Hebrew.”

Another committee member said to his associates: “It is important that everyone read the report well and not only interpret it.”

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008