On Friday evening, September 23, 2005, some 20 Palestinians
died in an explosion of a truckload of munitions during a
military parade by Hamas in the Jabalya refugee camp. Many
more were wounded. Hamas blamed Israel for the blast and
began firing volleys of Kassam rockets at Israel.
Israel strenuously denied any involvement and was supported
by the Palestinian Authority who said that it was the fault
of Hamas mishandling the explosives that it was parading.
Some 40 Kassam rockets hit Sderot and elsewhere in the
northern Negev over the weekend, wounding five persons, two
moderately, and causing much damage. Inhabitants of the
region went into bomb shelters.
Following the Kassam salvos, the IDF deployed around the Gaza
Strip to prevent further attacks and to strike at the
terrorist infrastructure of Gaza. The operation, which has
been named "First Rain," is expected to continue for at least
a few days.
The rocketing of Israel from Gaza is a most serious terrorist
aggression. Israel is exercising its right to self-defense
when it responds to attacks on its territory, as any state is
required to do.
Ever since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, terrorists,
including members of Hamas and other groups, have been
running wild in the streets there. The Palestinian leadership
has taken no action to stop it. The central responsibility of
any civil authority is to put an end to the lawlessness
within its territory, particularly terrorism directed against
the citizens of a neighboring state.
The IDF said that the rampaging in Gaza of terrorist
organizations led by Hamas, and the absence of any reaction
on the part of the Palestinian leadership, harms the
Palestinian public most of all, for it is forced to pay the
price. The anarchy in the Gaza Strip is first of all a threat
to the Palestinian Authority itself, and to the basic
interests of the Palestinian people.
On Sunday the IAF attacked several structures belonging to
Hamas, which were part of the weaponry manufacturing
operation in the Gaza Strip. The three structures used by
Hamas for manufacturing and storing weaponry were in the
Jabalya refugee camp, in the Zeitun neighborhood, and in Gaza
City.
The IAF also targeted a vehicle containing weaponry belonging
to Hamas, and a second vehicle in which Hamas terrorists were
traveling.
The IDF also attacked a major structure belonging to Hamas
located in the Sajaiya neighborhood in Gaza City. The
building served as an educational institution and is part of
the Hamas Dawa establishment. The institution was founded by
Ahmed Yassin in 1998, as a central project of Hamas. The
funding for the institution is from Hamas abroad, and from
projects in the Persian Gulf that are associated with
Hamas.
The institution is aimed at family members of Hamas
terrorists, and particularly at family members of imprisoned
Hamas terrorists and of terrorists killed while carrying out
Hamas activities.
The institution was also used by Yassin to hold gatherings of
Hamas terrorists, including armed terrorists. Yassin headed
the board of directors of the institution.
Following Yassin's death, the institution continued its
activity in close relation to Hamas, including management of
the organization's "Dawa" establishment. The funds raised by
the Dawa establishment have often been used to fund terrorist
attacks by Hamas.
By early Sunday the IDF had arrested 207 Hamas and Islamic
Jihad members in Yehuda and Shomron, including senior West
Bank Hamas officials Sheikh Hassan Youssef, Sheikh Fathi al
Karawi, and Mohammed Ghazal. By Monday IDF forces arrested
another 50 terrorists. The arrest sweep was Israel's biggest
crackdown since last February, and were carried out in
Hebron, Bethlehem, Jenin, Qalqilyah, Ramallah, Tulkarm and
Nablus.
The security cabinet approved the use of artillery fire
against the Kassam launchers in the Gaza Strip, as well as
targeted assassinations against Hamas members and the
continuation of aerial assaults.
The cabinet also ratified Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's
proposal that the IDF be instructed to create buffer zones
within the Gaza Strip in areas near the border, in order to
move the rocket launchers away from Israeli communities.
"This operation is not limited in time," Major General Israel
Ziv told Israel Radio.
The earliest incident tied to the latest round of violence
was an IDF raid last Friday, when police officers from an
anti-terror unit entered a village near Tulkarm in search of
Jihad activists suspected of being involved in the suicide
bombings at Tel Aviv's Stage club and Hasharon shopping
center. The wanted men fled into an open area outside the
village, where the police shot two of them dead. The third
was found and killed nearby.
Later Friday there was a Kassam attack, which Islamic Jihad
said it had initiated. That evening at a mass Hamas rally in
Gaza, two pickup trucks carrying armed men as well as
explosive materials blew up.
Military sources said that the zones will include
neighborhoods as well as open areas. "If necessary, we will
create ghost neighborhoods, we will use artillery to prevent
the rocket launchers from entering even at the price of
removing civilians from their homes," the source said.
Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar called for a halt to rocket
attacks on Israel, but Israeli leaders did not take it
seriously. "We don't relate to Hamas mutterings and are
judging everything according to reality on the ground," said
deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim.
