Fifteen Arab terrorists and one woman were killed Friday and Saturday by the Israel Defense Forces, in reaction to Arab bombardment of southern Israeli towns from Gaza.

The number of Arabs killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the military operation at midnight on Wednesday is up to 23.

The Israeli military operation was carried out in two separate sectors – in the southern Gaza Strip east of Khan Yunis and in the northern Gaza Strip, near the ruins of the settlements Dugit and Elei Sinai, operating against the rocket launchers.

Troops from the Givati infantry Brigade and the Bedouin Reconnaissance battalion took part in the ground fighting, with the help of ancillary Armored Corps and Engineering Corps troops.

An Israeli air force helicopter gunship over Beit Hanoun fired at least five volleys at a Hamas cell that was making its way to fight the advancing IDF troops.

Saturday afternoon, IDF troops killed two terrorists from Fatah’s military wing in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighborhood. The two were involved in Kassam rocket fire.

In the course of Friday night, the IDF destroyed a three-story building in Rafah that was owned by Hamdi al-Kasi, who is a member of Hamas.

The decision to destroy the building was made after Israeli intelligence confirmed that a tunnel was being dug from beneath it. The residents were called to vacate their apartments approximately half an hour before the building was bombed from the air.

The Israeli military operation is geared also to stymie the flow of smuggled weapons into Gaza from Egypt.

Hamas had recently smuggled into Gaza from Egypt dozens of advanced, Russian-made anti-tank rockets. The rockets in question are a similar model to the ones that were used by Hezbollah to attack IDF troops in Lebanon. These anti-tank rockets complement the tons of explosives, the upgraded Grad Rockets and the sniper rifles that have been smuggled into the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing.

“Gaza is quickly closing gaps. If we don’t take action now, the relative advantage that the IDF enjoys on the ground will become eroded,” warned high-ranking commanders from the Israeli army’s southern command.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said to senior Israeli army officers that Gaza Strip must not be allowed to become like southern Lebanon: “we’ve learned the lessons of Lebanon well. We will operate against the armament immediately and we will not allow the terrorist organizations to become stronger. Israel is acting to prevent Hamas from joining the Iranian axis of evil.”

Peretz called on the Egyptian troops that are deployed along the border with Gaza to tighten their supervision and to prevent the smuggling operations.

However, a senior Israeli intelligence source assesses that the incidents over these past few days in the Gaza Strip are the prelude to Israel marching headlong into a heads-on clash with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas Seeks To Expand Training In Iran

The Middle East News Line has confirmed that Hamas has sought to expand Iranian aid to the Palestinian movement.

Hamas leaders have been negotiating with Tehran to increase military and financial aid to the insurgency group.

Hamas officials, led by Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Sa’id Siyam, discussed the request during their visit to Tehran last week. Siyam, accompanied by the head of the new PA Executive Force, Yusef Zahar, has asked Iran to finance training of Hamas operatives.

Israel has confirmed Hamas’s request to Iran for additional aid.

©The Bulletin 2006

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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