Jerusalem, Israel – The Palestinian-operated Ma’an news agency reported yesterday that Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Authority, took responsibility for launching more than 80 missiles into the Israeli communities that border Gaza during Israel’s Independence Day, which this year was observed yesterday, April 24. Hamas claimed direct hits on the city of Ashkelon, located just north of Gaza.

Over the past year since Hamas assumed power in the Palestinian Authority, Hamas has rarely taken credit for missile attacks on Israel. In the spring of 2004, the Israeli army killed the leaders of Hamas at the time, Achmed Yassin and Abdilaziz Al-Rantissi, after these Hamas leaders took credit for terror attacks against Israel.

Ma’an news agency also reports that the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), fired two missiles, said that at the kibbutz Kerem Shalom, located southeast of Rafah on the border point between the Gaza Strip, Egypt and Israel. The Al-Quds brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa brigades, the main armed wing of Fatah, chaired by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, aka Abu Mazen, also claimed responsibility for launching missiles at a number of the Israeli city of Sderot.

The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that Israel’s military has warned of a major attack against Palestinian insurgency strongholds in the Gaza Strip.

“Six years of turning a blind eye have ended, and from now on, no one will be immune. We will operate across the border,” declared Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz during a ceremony commemorating Israel’s fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism for Memorial Day, speaking in his home town , the missile-battered city of Sderot.

Throughout Israeli Independence Day, Israeli fighter-jets patrolled the air space over the Gaza Strip and dropped leaflets around major cities. The leaflets warned that the Israeli army would invade the Gaza Strip unless Palestinians ended their missile strikes on Israel immediately.

The Bulletin has asked the Israel Ministry of Defense as to whether current Hamas leaders of the Palestinian Authority will now face a similar fate that Yassin and Rantissi suffered three years ago, since Israel faced no international outcry after the Israeli army put the previous leaders of Hamas to death.

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

©The Bulletin 2007

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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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