Hamas attacks on Israel Continue

[The Grim Squeaker]

Rocket from Gaza strikes Israeli city
By Isabel Kershner and Taghreed El-Khodary
Wednesday, February 4, 2009

GAZA: Palestinian militants fired a long-range rocket from Gaza into the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Tuesday and Israel retaliated with airstrikes against smuggling tunnels and a Hamas outpost in southern Gaza, as Egyptian-brokered talks for a sustainable cease-fire continued in Cairo with no obvious progress.

No injuries were reported on the Palestinian or Israeli side.

But the rocket that fell near a clinic in central Ashkelon was an imported Katyusha, the first of that more powerful type since a tenuous calm took hold more than two weeks ago. It presented a new challenge to Israeli leaders ahead of elections next Tuesday and raised the possibility of a military escalation should the Egyptian initiative fail.

"We promised peace and safety to those living in southern Israel, and we will deliver," the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, vowed Tuesday.

Israel pulled its troops out of Gaza on Jan. 18, ending a devastating three-week offensive that Israel said had been primarily meant to deter such rocket attacks. Israel and Hamas, the Islamic group that rules Gaza, declared separate cease-fires. But tit-for-tat attacks have increased since Jan. 27, when Palestinian militants detonated a bomb that killed an Israeli soldier patrolling the border.

Until Tuesday, the trickle of mostly homemade rockets fired into Israel had landed primarily in open areas close to the Gaza border. Ashkelon is a city of 120,000 people about 10 miles north of Gaza, on the Mediterranean coast.

Hamas denies that it has been firing the rockets. The Gaza branch of Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a militia nominally affiliated with Hamas's main rival, Fatah, has claimed responsibility for some of the launchings. Others have been claimed by smaller groups, or have gone unclaimed.

In Gaza, some leaders explained the rockets as a means of testing and challenging Israel, Egypt and Hamas.

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas leader in Gaza, said Israel's decision to declare a unilateral cease-fire, without reaching agreements with Hamas, "opens the door for some factions to prove themselves at this time."

A Fatah leader, Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, suggested that Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and others had been, in effect, protesting their exclusion from the Cairo talks. Israel rejects such explanations and holds the Hamas rulers of Gaza responsible for all the rocket attacks. Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, noted that Hamas had not been taking any action against the groups firing the rockets.

Some Israeli analysts speculate that Hamas wants to show it has not been defeated, and that it may be trying to better the terms for any cease-fire deal.

Egypt has been holding separate talks with Israel and Hamas, and has indicated that it is trying to reach a formula for consolidating the cease-fire by Thursday. Hamas representatives were in Cairo on Tuesday for more talks.

In return for a cease-fire lasting a year or more, Hamas is demanding the lifting of Israel's 18-month economic embargo on Gaza and the opening of the border crossings for regular commerce.

Israel is seeking assurances from Egypt about the prevention of weapons smuggling into Gaza, and says it is prepared to allow only humanitarian aid into Gaza at this stage. Israel has made the resolution of the case of a captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, a condition for the full operation of the border crossings.

Hamas has been holding Shalit since 2006 and has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for his return. The group has rejected any linking of the issue of the border crossings to the soldier's release.

Egypt may be trying to press Hamas into accepting a partial opening of the crossings, but Hamas officials have continued in recent days to demand an end of the embargo and have not hinted at a compromise.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that the new administration's special envoy to the Middle East, the former senator George Mitchell, will revisit the region this month.

Mitchell returned Monday from the region, where he held talks with Israeli officials and with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank who were considered more moderate and pragmatic than Hamas. "This is the first of what will be an ongoing high level of engagement by Senator Mitchell on behalf of myself and the president," Clinton said.

The United States, like Israel and the European Union, refuses to deal with Hamas unless it fulfills certain conditions, including recognizing Israel's right to exist and renouncing violence. Hamas has so far rejected those conditions.

Rockets constantly, and the media focus is on why the BBC isn't showing advertisements to fund Gaza. Wonderful.

[SirNitram]

At the risk of breaking IvP, I can't help but wonder if some individuals or some group is doing this with the intention of Hamas eventually eating the retaliation, allowing ascension of either new blood to membership or a new controlling faction.

And yea, don't expect the media to cover the area sensibly.

[ray245]

Great, so the Israelis bomb the hell out of the Gaza region and Hamas, and there is still rocket fire? Do we need another round of bombing again?

[CJvR]

At the risk of breaking IvP, I can't help but wonder if some individuals or some group is doing this with the intention of Hamas eventually eating the retaliation, allowing ascension of either new blood to membership or a new controlling faction.

Well that isn't particulary far fetched, how many times did Hamas and Islamic Jihad set off a few bombs whenever the PLO had made some sort of deal in the past? For the Fatah remnant in Gaza shooting a few rockets to bring down the wrath of the IDF on their enemies is a perfectly logical way for them to wage war on Hamas.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its been my belief for a long time that Hamas fundamentally believes it needs the conflict to continue to exist and have power. This may or may not be true, but I think that’s what they think. As long as it does go on, they have a ready made justification to do absolutely ANYTHING as they can denounce anyone as a Zionest spy ect.... They’ve been using this to steadily increase control of Gaza; Fatah and the competing terrorist groups are now largely squashed out of existence organizational. Now they are working on squashing away and absorbing the members individually.

The problem with this means of operation is you need more and more external pressure to keep it functioning. With other nation states, usually they’d go and launch a war about now to keep up the tempo (see Argentina invading the Falklands). Hamas however is in a very unusual situation so it can just fire off a few rockets each day for the needed effect, for now. Hamas may not be directly launching the rockets, but they COULD stop them if they wanted. They know everyone who would be capable of doing it.

Since Hamas is pretty well immune to being destroyed by Israel, and Israel isolates it from any other external forces that might seek a quicker end to its regime, it will be very interesting to see how long the terror state can boil before collapses. Could be a year, could be thirty. Much will depend on if Hamas eventually resumes suicide bombings or not, and if Fatah in the West Bank eventually decides to pursue a separate peace.