On Saturday, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion of Gaza, and by yesterday, it had effectively cut the territory in two.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operated on the ground in the northern Gaza Strip in el-Atatra, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya and Sajaiya, near where Hamas has been firing rockets and mortar shells at Israel.

IDF ground forces received support from helicopter gunships, while the Israeli Air Force (IAF) continued attacking targets and objectives deep within the Gaza Strip. Most of the fighting is currently concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip, where most of the rockets fired at southern Israel have come from.

Backing up the troops, mobile artillery units fired shells that exploded in heavy veils of white smoke over Gaza’s urban skyline. Tanks pushed south of Gaza city as deep as the abandoned Israeli settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

That effectively cut off Gaza city, the territory’s largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south.

Israel’s military chief said Hamas fighters were trying to draw soldiers deeper into Gaza’s sprawling, densely packed urban areas, where the military said Hamas was seeking protection behind civilians.

Israeli troops took up positions in the locations they had been assigned to reach by the IDF Southern Command and the commander of the Gaza Division.

IDF sources said exchanges of fire had ensued throughout Saturday night into early yesterday morning between IDF

troops and armed Palestinians, and dozens of militants had been hit. The IAF and the Israeli Navy continued
attacking as well, striking at more than 45 targets throughout the
night.

The Israeli Navy concentrated some of its attacks on Gaza city itself. In an interview with Army Radio, Director of the Political-Security Staff in the Defense Ministry Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad detailed the operation’s objectives, but he refrained from discussing their duration.

According to Palestinian media reports, Israeli tanks advanced along the Karni-Netzarim road southeast of Gaza city, as they advanced in the direction of the former Israeli community Netzarim that had been demolished by the Israeli government in August 2005. Battles raged throughout the night and into the early morning in the area of Sajaiya in the eastern Gaza Strip, as well as in the area of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza.

Hamas To Israel: You’re Fighting A Losing Battle

Just a few minutes after the IDF ground operation began, Hamas issued a series of dire warnings. “The Zionist enemy needs to know that its battle in Gaza
is a lost battle,” said Abu Obeida, a senior official in
Hamas’ military wing, yesterday.

“Gaza isn’t going to be a picnic for you,” Ismail Radwan, another senior Hamas official, said in a direct appeal
to IDF soldiers. “It will be
your graveyard.”

Although the IDF ground invasion was accompanied by massive shelling, and
Hamas tried to boost its morale by saying it had successfully used planted bombs against the Israeli forces, Hamas leaders boasted Israel would be defeated shortly.

“The victory announcement is already prepared,” announced a Hamas official yesterday, while Hamas Political Bureau Director Khaled Mashal in Damascus threatened the operation would bring about a “second, third and fourth Shalit,” referring to the fate of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in June 2006.

Iran In The Background
 


As of yesterday evening, an estimated 497 had been killed and approximately 2,300 had been wounded since the beginning of ground operations in Gaza.
 Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced yesterday they would only accept a cease-fire according to a new arrangement that would establish new conditions and a timetable for lifting the blockade of the Gaza Strip as well as the opening of crossing points.

“We will not agree to a unilateral cessation of rocket fire unless the conditions for a new [cease-fire] are accepted, which means lifting the blockade. Time is in our favor,” the Hamas statement read.

Mr. Mashal, based in Syria, appeared on television last Friday, declaring Hamas would not surrender.

Iran, too, has begun to openly become involved in the fighting. The
secretary-general of Iran’s National Security Council, Saed Jalili, met
yesterday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Mr. Mashal and with the secretary-general of Islamic Jihad. Sources suggest the high-ranking Iranian official possibly passed instructions from the Iranian leadership to continue the rocket attacks against Israel and evade Egyptian requests to dialogue with the Hamas leadership.

On Saturday, Egyptian officials accused Iran openly of involvement in managing affairs in Gaza.

“They are the ones who supplied the arms, the ammunition and the funding, and they are the ones who are interested in making sure that Hamas will not stop firing rockets at Israel in order to escalate the conflict,” said a high-ranking official in the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

The IAF bombardments concentrated focal points, including major highways in the Gaza Strip; mosques in Beit Lahiya and in Rafah; the airport in Dahaniya; and the homes of Hamas operatives, which had been empty since their residents had fled at the beginning of last week.

On Saturday, IAF aircraft also bombed the editorial offices and the printer of Hamas’ official weekly newspaper.

The bombardments, like the artillery that was fired yesterday at uninhabited areas in the northern Gaza Strip and along the fence, were part of the ground preparations for the invasion.

Meanwhile, the IDF dropped thousands of propaganda leaflets from the air to Gaza’s inhabitants.

“The Hamas leadership is leading you to ruin. Take responsibility for your future,” they read. In addition, the radio broadcasts of the Gaza Strip were jammed, and a statement in Arabic was read: “We are not fighting against you, but against Hamas. Help us. Stay away from the battle areas.”

Israeli
officials went into chat rooms on the Internet and told Gaza residents, “Help us. Give us information. Hamas will not know about it.”

Wide Diplomatic Support For Israeli Action

So far, Israel has enjoyed widespread support for the time being of not only the Bush administration but from European countries as well.

The Czech Republic, which chairs the European Union as of Jan. 1, 2009, provided a clear endorsement.

Israel has furthermore enjoyed a rare convergence of interests with the leaders of Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states, which apparently are giving tacit support to the Israeli action against the Hamas regime in Gaza.

Israel has rejected all suggestions that it unilaterally declare a cease-fire, as had been proposed by the leaders of the Quartet – the United States, Russia, the U.N. and the E.U. The proposal was rejected because it would not ensure the creation of a mechanism to supervise and stop arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.

There are a number of initiatives currently in the pipeline, but high-ranking political officials in Jerusalem said no initiative has either ripened sufficiently or received any acknowledgement by Hamas.

The parties involved in the talks include the United States, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; the European Union, Russia and others. President George W. Bush, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah of Jordan, Mr. Mubarak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been trying to reach an arrangement that would result in a cease-fire, which would include a built-in mechanism that would supervise its implementation.

They have also been working on operational ideas for coping with the arms smuggling in to Gaza in coordination with Egypt, including by means of building a buffer along Philadelphi Road, the border area between Egypt and Gaza.

Assessment: The Final Arrangement For Gaza: Full Israel Takeover On The Horizon?

The ground operation has one aim:
 the elimination of Hamas’ capability to launch rockets at Israeli territory.

If the State of Israel aspires to “a fundamental change in the situation in the south,” as Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Saturday, which means that Israel’s leaders realize that this objective cannot be accomplished with a partial operation.

A complete operation that would bring fundamental change to the situation in the south, obligates the complete takeover of Gaza from Hamas on a permanent basis.

Israel does not see any chance of bringing about a complete removal of the rocket threat from the Gaza if the IDF does not permanently patrol the area on the ground.

Rockets have never been fired from an area under IDF control.

This is the experience that Israel has had in the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority is only has responsibility for civilian spheres and for keeping public order.

At this point, this model likely will be adopted in Gaza as a model for a final status arrangement. The IDF will maintain security control over the entire Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian Authority will manage civilian affairs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com .

The Estimated Makeup Of Hamas’ Paramilitary Force

• 16,000 armed men.

• Two brigades deployed along the Gaza border.

• Six brigades further in the Gaza Strip, which are responsible for
planning bombs, mines, firing anti-tank rockets, digging bomb pits and
bomb tunnels.

• Special Forces: suicide bombers, anti-tank rocket squads,
anti-aircraft fire squads, snipers, mortar squads, rocket launching
squads, intelligence operatives.

• 32,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

• 2,000 rockets.

• 4,000 rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

• 120 tons of explosives.

• 200-300 tunnels packed with explosives.

• 15 BRDM-2 armored personnel carriers.

• Dozens of jeeps fitted with heavy machine-guns.

• Dozens of 120 millimeter mortars.

Thursday, Hamas fired a long-range Grad 122-mm Katyusha rocket, which struck a penthouse on the eighth floor of an apartment building in Ashdod. Firefighters rushed to the scene to battle the subsequent blaze ignited in two apartments by the rocket, and officials said the building was severely damaged.

Magen David Adom medics treated a number of people for severe emotional trauma, but no one suffered any physical injuries. There were people in the apartments at the time of the missile impact. By some miracle, no one was killed or injured.

The attack was the latest in a series of Hamas rocket strikes against Israel this week.

On Wednesday, Gazans launched an unprecedented salvo of rockets toward Beersheba – marking the first time since 1948 the town has been targeted.

As the war in Gaza continues, the issue of the possibility of Palestinian civilian deaths hovers over the conscience of the people of Israel and the judicial system of Israel, at a time when officials of Israeli intelligence confirm that the Palestinian military targets are surrounded by at least 90,000 Palestinian villages and/or United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) refugee camps.

In that context, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) has issued a statement warning Israeli armed forces to refrain from killing civilians in Gaza.

However, the Sderot Media Center has filmed and confirmed that Hamas fighters fire lethal rockets from the roofs of housing projects in Beit Hanoun, strategically located in Northern Gaza, half a mile from Sderot.

The Israel Intelligence Information Center has similarly filmed and confirmed found that Palestinian fighters use UNRWA schoolyards in Gaza as cover for firing their deadly rockets against Israel.

Israeli military operation in Gaza entered its fourth day yesterday against the backdrop of heightened Hamas rocket fire at Israeli cities and towns and the looming threat of an Israeli ground invasion.

Lutafi Nasrallah Din, 38 of the Israeli Druze village of Daliat el-Carmel, an NCO in the IDF’s career army, killed in the Nahal Oz area on Monday night, was buried in his village.

In Ashdod, Irit Shetrit, 39, mother of four children, who was killed at a bus stop on Monday night, was buried in Ashdod.

The Israel Air Force meanwhile continued to bombard targets across Gaza focusing on ministry buildings, Hamas outposts, installations and even individuals.

In the meantime, the Israel Defense Forces, the IDF, successfully targeted and killed Ziad Abu Tir, a senior Islamic Jihad operative in an air strike. The IAF attacked his house in Abassan, which is near Khan Yunis. Four other Palestinians were killed along with Abu Tir, including his brother and nephew and two other people. The home of Maher Zakut, a senior operative in Islamic Jihad’s military wing, was also bombed. He was not at home at the time of the air strike and that he was not hurt.

Another air strike was carried out with the goal of taking out a tunnel that had been dug toward Israel. Inside the tunnel were between three and four terrorists. The tunnel in question was dug in the southern part of the Gaza Strip and was begun a few dozen meters from the border. The assumed purpose of the tunnel was either to have it blow up beneath an IDF outpost or to use it to kidnap another Israeli soldier.

It was in this very same sector that Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. The tunnel was destroyed, while the terrorists were busy digging.

The troops around Gaza were instructed to maintain a heightened level of alert so as to prevent any such terror attacks from being perpetrated.

The IAF used bombs with a small diameter in order to blow up the tunnels beneath Philadelphi Road, which is the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The bombs in question are marked by the U.S. Army as SDB GBU-39, and are known for their high penetrability and their tremendous destructive power.

They were developed by Boeing specifically so that they could be carried by American stealth bombers. They are relatively small in size and they can also be carried by F-15 and F-16 jets that are used by the IAF.

These bombs, which weigh 113 kilograms, have the destructive capabilities of bombs that are far heavier then they are, thanks to the speed with which they penetrate and their kinetic energy. They can be fired from a great distance without risking the life of the pilot. They spread their wings and become stabilized, at which point they glide toward their target.

Israel bought 1,000 of these bombs with the approval of the US. Congress in September. The first batch was supplied in early December and they are already in operational use.

Meanwhile, Israeli Security officials have informed the Israeli media that about 90,000 Gaza residents live near Hamas military installations which have been targeted for attack.

Preparing For A Ground Attack

One of Israel’s most respected military experts, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror, observed in an Israeli media interview that “the illusion as if we might be able to suffice with just an air operation alone faded against the hail of rockets out of Gaza, even though that outcome was certainly anticipated in light of our experience in Lebanon. The State of Israel has no choice, if its leaders want to win this war and if the IDF wants to meet its principal purpose of defending the citizens of Israel and its sovereignty, but to prepare for a major ground operation in the Gaza Strip.”

If and when IDF ground troops enter Gaza Strip they are going to find themselves facing an armed force that is prepared for battle. In a process that began five years ago, Hamas’ military wing has become an organized military body that has amassed weapons, planted bombs and trained combat troops who are now waiting to fight IDF soldiers.

The man who turned Hamas into an army is Ahmed Jaabari, who currently is considered to be the commander of Hamas’ military wing. Mr. Jaabari began the process of turning the small terror cells into organized military units: The northern Gaza Strip is under the command of Ahmed Ghandur, Gaza City is under the command of Raed Saad, the central Gaza Strip is under the command of Ayman Nofel (who currently is under arrest in Egypt), Khan Yunis is under the command of Mohammed Sinwar and the southern Gaza Strip is under the command of Mohammed Abu Simala.

In addition to those brigades, Hamas also has a navy of 200 soldiers and special task forces for planting bombs, firing rockets and gathering intelligence. Hundreds of people belong to those forces.

The Hamas army, which is estimated to be comprised of some 20,000 combat troops, operates on the basis of a fairly organized chain of command. In the past number of years, as part of the learning process from engagements with IDF troops, Hamas forces have learned to use special auxiliary troops, such as units that fire mortar shells, to cover the fighting combat troops.

Hamas established a military academy with training camps across Gaza. Palestinian sources say that Hamas sent a large number of people off to Iran for training. The people who received training in Iran then returned to the Gaza Strip and passed on their new knowledge to the other troops.

In the past number of years, but particularly so in the past six months, Hamas has smuggled enormous quantities of weapons into the Gaza Strip. Along with rifles, pistols, sniper guns and ammunition, Hamas succeeded in smuggling in more sophisticated means, such as anti-tank rockets, heavy machineguns that are used as anti-aircraft guns and large quantities of explosives.

In the course of the truce agreement, say Palestinian security officials, Hamas prepared the ground in advance of an Israeli ground operation. Hamas operatives dug tunnels that were filled with explosives, planted large bombs along the main roads and held exercises in urban warfare. Furthermore, Hamas’ anti-tank units have improved significantly and underground bunkers have been built to store weapons and to serve as headquarters, shooting positions and observation posts. Hamas has also booby-trapped houses, built decoy tunnels and suicide bombers await the invading Israeli forces.

One high-ranking Israeli military officer told the Israeli Ma’ariv newspaper a number of months ago that no one thinks lightly of Hamas’ capabilities.

“In the course of this past year it has spent all of its time planting bombs across the Gaza Strip,” said the officer. “Some of them are in deep burrows that, as soon as our first tank crosses them, will blow up, but there are also burrows in which the terrorists will hide. We anticipate trained snipers with high-quality equipment. Everything Hezbollah had in Lebanon has been smuggled into Gaza. We’re prepared for everything and know how to cope with those capabilities.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

Deadly Gaza missiles reached farther into Israel last night, hitting the vital commercial port city of Ashdod.

In Ashdod, a 33-year-old woman was killed at a sheltered bus stop in Ashdod where she ran for cover after hearing the siren which warned of an approaching missile.

This hit marks the first time Ashdod has been shelled. Ashdod is Israel’s fifth largest city, located approximately 22 miles from Gaza and has a population of 250,000.

This rocket was one of more than 70 fired at Israel last night, an evening which also marked the first time that the Tel Aviv suburb of Yavne was shelled as well as the first time that the community of Ofakim, in the northern Negev, was shelled.

In another attack last night, one person was killed when a mortar shell fired by Gaza terrorists struck the Nahal Oz area, in the western Negev.

Last night, the name of the construction worker who was killed earlier in the day was released: Hanni Al-Mahdi, 27, of the Bedouin town of Aroer in the Negev, who was killed when he and another 14 people were hit when a Grad-type missile hit a construction site in Ashkelon’s center.

The Hamas regime in Gaza took responsibility for shelling Israel last night, firing the missile and reported that a “Zionist” was killed in the attack.

A man who identified himself as an Israeli Arab named Moussa, a construction worker from Kfar Manda who was lightly wounded in the Ashkelon attack, told Israel Army Radio that there were about 12 workers at the site at the time of the attack.

In Sderot, four people suffered from shock after their house sustained a direct hit from a rocket.

The Israeli Arab revolt seemed to be spreading, with reports of Israeli Arabs throwing lethal stones at Israeli vehicles on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway and inside Tel Aviv itself.

Meanwhile, WAFA, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) news agency reported that Chief Palestinian Negotiator Ahmed Qurei’ announced, yesterday, that peace negotiations with Israel are suspended in protest of the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip. WAFA quoted Mr. Qurei’ as saying that “it is impossible to hold meetings with Israel when its troops are committing massacres in Gaza. The talks with Israel, which are sponsored and supported by the United States, are now suspended due to the awful bloody scene that Gaza is witnessing these days…. [T]here are no peace negotiations and there will be no negotiations at this time while Israel is attacking the Palestinian people.”

Yet in an official Israeli government briefing that was held only three days before Israel’s offensive against the Hamas regime in Gaza, an Israeli intelligence source told the media that the Arab world – especially the PLO – would express support for Israeli military action against Hamas.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

Israeli fighter planes and helicopter gunships continued to pound targets in Gaza yesterday, and reportedly hit 40 tunnels that served for smuggling weaponry under Philadelphi Road, tunnels on the border between Gaza and Egypt with bunker-buster bombs.

It took three minutes for IDF jets to destroy the 40 tunnels for smuggling weaponry under Philadelphi Road in the southern Gaza Strip. Dozens of fighter planes simultaneously targeted the border between Egypt and Gaza and in one blow, severed the smuggling route of rocket, weapons and explosives for Hamas and other terror organizations.

The quick operation was preceded by preparation and intelligence-collecting work by the Israeli Intelligence, which lasted for a long period.

Following the attack on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, dozens of Palestinians breached the border and ran toward Egyptian Rafah. Egyptian Border Guard policemen opened fire, first shooting in the air to deter the Palestinians, and subsequently firing machine gun fire and even an anti-tank rocket at the infiltrators.

The attack on the tunnels was intended to stop the supply of further rockets to Hamas, but one of the IDF’s main tasks in the past two days has been to target the reserves of rockets and launchers that the terrorists already hold. Security officials estimated yesterday that Hamas’ ability to launch from bunkers has been damaged by 50 percent since the start of the operation.

The targets that were bombed on Sunday and yesterday were not only Hamas military and training installations, as on the first day of the operation, but also strategic targets intended to undermine Hamas’ rule – government ministries, the central prison, the studio of the Hamas al-Quds television station, a large fuel and diesel depot in Rafah, main roads, the Finance Ministry building, the Beit Hanoun municipality, and in the evening, the General Intelligence building built by the Americans over a decade ago for the Fatah regime.

After the large-scale air strikes, the Israel Defense Forces is preparing for the next possible stage of Operation Cast Lead – a ground incursion. Large forces, mainly belonging to the Golani and Paratroopers Brigades and the Armored Corps, are concentrated around the Gaza Strip. For the first time in the past three years, an artillery battery was stationed yesterday in the Gaza area. Additional units will join the forces as needed.

What may disrupt the IDF’s preparations is the weather. In the coming days, stormy weather is expected, which will hamper the aerial and ground activity. This has been taken into account in the operational plans.

Siren Alert Ready For Beer Sheva, Too

On Sunday, Hamas proved that it has rockets with a 30-kilometer range, after a rocket fired from more than 30 kilometers away landed in the yard of a home in a community north of Ashdod. Following this, the residents of Beer Sheva, Yavne, Gedera and nearby communities may also be hearing the sirens. The Israeli Army Home Front Command therefore called upon the residents of these cities and communities to locate safe rooms in their homes.

According to the instructions, when the siren sounds, the residents have one minute to look for shelter in a protected space, and they must remain there for five minutes. Today, the Home Front Command will begin giving residents of the new communities handbooks that explain how to protect themselves from rocket strikes.

Israel Rejects Demands For A Cease-Fire

Israel is rejecting all feelers from heads of state and foreign ministers who looked into the possibility of trying to reach a cease-fire with Hamas.

Among those who have done so are the foreign ministers of Qatar, Great Britain and Russia, as well as the U.N. secretary-general. The four of them spoke by telephone yesterday with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The Russian foreign minister demanded an immediate cessation of all military activity and a cease-fire.

Ms. Livni told her counterparts that at this stage, the military operation would continue until its main goals had been accomplished: “a change in the security situation with Hamas in the south.” She told them that Israel has no intention of overthrowing the Hamas regime in Gaza, but said, “Hamas must understand that Israel will not stop its military operation until it is clear to Hamas that it cannot and will not try in the future to launch rockets at Israel.”

Foreign Minister Livni also spoke with the EU’s foreign policy director and with the foreign ministers of Spain, Italy and Turkey. She told them that Israel expects them to show understanding regarding Israel’s need to defend itself and continue operating in Gaza in order to change the security situation.

On Sunday, during a briefing that Ms. Livni held in Sderot for ambassadors serving in Israel, she said, “I don’t accept the calls for a cease-fire. The only way that it may be possible to shorten the operation is with a clear statement that Israel has a right to defend itself and that the international community supports Israel against Hamas. This is the message that you should convey.”

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia spoke by telephone with U.S. President George Bush, asking him to use his influence in order to organize influential countries to stop the Israeli offensive. “We need to organize a coalition of countries so that Israel will stop the killing, the torture and the blockade that it has imposed upon the occupied territories,” he said.

Israeli Arabs In Revolt

The Israeli Arab citizens, who comprise 15 percent of Israel’s population, held a general strike yesterday in protest of the Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip. Demonstrations and rallies were held in many Arab towns throughout the country. Violent riots were dispersed by the police.

Batya and Moshe Cohen, a couple from Afula, encountered rioters on the North-South road near the Israeli Arab city of Umm el-Fahm, where an angry mob miraculously attacked and damaged their car, causing the two to be lightly injured. They were taken for medical treatment at Haemek Hospital in Afula.

“We almost went to heaven,” said Batya in alarm. “We escaped from the mob. It was awful, I still can’t believe how we were saved. It was a real Hanukkah miracle.” Batya’s mother Idit said that her parents had gone to visit her sister, who is soon expected to give birth, and the incident occurred on their way back home.

“My mother called me and started to say in tears that they had been stoned,” she added.

The Cohens were on their way from Hadera back to their home in Afula, when they encountered the riots.

“We were on the Wadi Ara road, and stood in a long traffic jam,” said Batya.

After nearly running out of gas due to waiting in the traffic jam, they stopped off in the gas station at Umm el-Fahm junction, not knowing about the riots there.

“Within a second, hundreds of young people surrounded us, some wearing masks, and started to attack the car and throw stones at us,” Batya said. “I saw murderous looks in their eyes; someone threw a huge cinder block at the car. At the last moment, my husband got up his courage and started to quickly drive away.” The couple’s car was completely demolished, and the police are continuing to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

In the large Israeli Arab communities, such as Umm el-Fahm, Kafr Kana and Arabe, thousands participated in riots and clashed with the police, which prevented them from reaching the main roads. About 20 Israeli Arab rioters were arrested by the police. In the course of the riots, harsh calls were heard such as: “We are part of the Palestinian people and we can’t stand by and watch the killing and the murder.”

“The strike is a sign of unequivocal identification with the Palestinian people,” said yesterday Abed Anabtawi, spokesman of the Israeli Arab Supreme Monitoring Committee.

Violent riots also took place in smaller villages. A police car that passed through Kabul junction last night was stoned, and the front windshield was damaged. The policemen managed to get out of the vehicle and were not hurt, but several dozen young people congregated at the spot and continued to throw stones.

In Haifa, 400 Arabs and Israeli left-wingers held signs and denounced Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Large police forces faced the rioters and ensured that traffic would not be disrupted. Over 700 people held a large demonstration in the Israeli Arab city of Fureidis, in which a private vehicle was hit by stones thrown at it. Large forces of the coastal region police, headed by local police commander Lt. Cmdr. Roni Attia, arrived at the scene. The car that was hit was traveling on the old Tel Aviv-Haifa road, and police sources say that its windshield was shattered at the entrance to the village.

“There is a general guideline by the police to raise the state of alert and increase forces in sensitive locations,” police sources said. “We are prepared for any scenario that could arise due to the situation in the south.”

In the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa, young people set fire to tires and blocked the entrance to the area. In Baana and Deir el-Assad, about 100 demonstrators gathered, shouting: “With spirit and blood we will redeem Gaza.”

They threw stones at cars in the area. Following the riot, large police forces were called in, under the command of Carmiel station commander Dep. Cmdr. Rami Neumark, in an attempt to rein in the young people.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, leading Arab affairs expert at Bar Ilan University, analyzes that “Israeli Arabs are now caught between a rock and a hard place: They cannot identify with the state because it is Jewish and Zionist, while they are not Jews and most are not Zionists.”

Their question of dual loyalty arises today more than ever, as some Israeli Arabs prefer their affiliation with the Arab and Muslim world, and not with Israel.

Ironically, the one Israeli citizen who was killed yesterday as a result of a missile attack on Ashkelon was an Israeli Muslim Bedouin construction worker who was killed at a construction site in Ashkelon when he suffered a direct hit and was killed instantly.

2.2 Billion Shekels Per Week

While the Kassam rockets fall upon the inhabitants of the southern communities and Air Force fighter jets continue to bomb the Gaza Strip, the Israeli government is beginning to think about the bill that will be presented at the end of the operation. According to various assessments, the cost of fighting in Gaza adds up to 100 million shekels ($25 million) per day, and various Israeli government officials estimated yesterday that one week of military action would cost the taxpayer NIS 2.2 billion.

This amount includes two components – the direct military cost, which includes moving the aircraft, tanks and artillery, calling up the reserves and the rest of the military cost; and compensation for the direct and indirect damage that was caused to apartments and businesses in the south as a result of the continued Kassam rocket and Grad rocket strikes in the region.

If the fighting should last for two weeks, the cost will reach NIS 3.5 billion, and if the operation should last for a month, as the Second Lebanon War did, the economic damage will add up to NIS 6 billion, NIS 3.5 billion of it the direct military cost, and the remainder compensation for the damage that will be caused by the fighting.

For the sake of comparison, the cost of the Second Lebanon War was higher, amounting to approximately NIS 10 billion because of damage to thousands of apartments and businesses and because of the payment of enormous compensation for the damage caused in the war. Unlike in the summer of 2006, this time the fighting has caught the economy in a state of sharp slowdown, and the local economy is at the brink of recession.

Industrial manufacturing has stalled, exports are in retreat and private consumption has slowed down sharply.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com.

Last week, on Christmas Eve, the Hamas-dominated Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza approved a new bill “to implement Quranic punishments,” including crucifixion, corporal punishment and execution.

Section 59 of the law establishes that “punishment of death will be enacted on any Palestinian who intentionally does one of the following: Raised a weapon against Palestine on behalf of the enemy during war, was appointed to negotiate with a foreign government on a Palestinian issue and negotiated against Palestinians’ interest, performed a hostile action against a foreign country in a way that endangers Palestine in war or in harming political relations, served a foreign army in time of war, advised or helped soldiers to enlist in this army, weakened the spirit or the force of resistance of the people, or spied against Palestine especially during war.”

The Arabic language newspaper al-Hayat of London reported this on Christmas Eve, noting that this step is seen as “unprecedented, and has brought criticism and concern from human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip.”

These revelations were made by the Palestinian Media Watch group, which follows and analyzes Palestinian agencies and institutions.