Dozens of rockets fired at Israel as Hamas ends ceasefire, IDF hits back - Adiv Sterman - http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-ordered-to-renew-strikes-on-gaza-strip/
Israel waits 2.5 hours as rockets from Gaza pummel Negev towns, then resumes air campaign suspended on Tuesday
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon ordered the IDF Friday to "respond with force" to rocket fire against Israel originating from the Gaza Strip, after Palestinian terror groups in Gaza broke the ceasefire at 8 a.m. and began firing dozens of rockets at southern Israel.
Hamas officials refused to extend the three-day cease-fire, but said they were willing to continue negotiations in Cairo. Israel said it would not negotiate under fire and would protect its citizens by all means. The Israeli delegation left Cairo on Friday morning, and it was not clear if it would return. Egyptian officials were continuing talks with the Palestinian delegation, which was reportedly divided, with PA representatives having urged an extension of the ceasefire, overruled by Hamas representatives.
Within minutes after the temporary truce expired at 8 a.m., Gaza militants began firing rockets. By afternoon, some 40 rockets had been fired. Some 30 landed in Israel, several were intercepted and at least four fell short in Gaza, the army said. Four Israelis were hurt, one seriously. One rocket landed meters from a gasoline station. Later, a rocket directly hit a home in Sderot.
Israel eventually responded with what the military said were strikes "across Gaza." Police in Gaza said that most of the strikes hit empty fields, but that one struck the backyard of the Nour al-Mohammadi Mosque in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sheik Radwan, killing a 10-year-old boy.
Police also reported fire from Israeli tanks on northern Gaza and from Israeli gunboats at the central area of the strip.
In Israel, the army said it was prohibiting gatherings of more than 1,000 people in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other areas within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the Gaza border because of the rocket fire.
The resumption of violence cast doubt over the Cairo negotiations.
Both Israel and Hamas are under international pressure to reach a deal. As part of such an arrangement, Israel wants to see Hamas disarmed or prevented from re-arming, while Hamas demands Gaza's borders be opened. Israel and Egypt maintain a security blockade of Gaza to prevent Hamas importing more weaponry.
Hamas, which has seen its popularity boosted for confronting Israel, entered the Cairo talks from a point of military weakness after losing hundreds of fighters, two-thirds of its rockets arsenal and all of its attack tunnels.
With no definitive statement that it would return to open war, the group appeared to be keeping its options open while several smaller Gaza militant organizations claimed responsibility for Friday's rocket fire.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev blamed Gaza militants for breaking the ceasefire. "The ceasefire is over," Regev said. "They did that."
The three-day truce came after a month of Israel-Hamas fighting, the third cross-border confrontation in just over five years.
Israel launched an air campaign on the coastal territory on July 8, and nine days later, sent in ground troops to target rocket launchers and cross-border tunnels built by Hamas for attacks inside Israel.
Since then, Israeli strikes on Gaza killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians, and displaced tens of thousands of people. Israel says 750-1,000 of the dead are gunmen, and blames Hamas for all the civilian fatalities, since Hamas used Gazans as "human shields" for its rockets and tunnels, Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Sixty-seven people, all but three of them soldiers, were killed on the Israeli side, and Gaza militants fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel over the past month. Eleven soldiers were killed by gunmen emerging inside Israel from the cross-border tunnels, which Netanyahu said were built as Hamas planned to carry out "catastrophic" acts of terrorism against Israelis.
Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. The closure led to widespread hardship in the Mediterranean seaside territory, home to 1.8 million people. Movement in and out of Gaza is limited, the economy has ground to a standstill and unemployment is over 50 percent.
Israel argues that it needs to keep Gaza's borders under a blockade as long as Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel, the US and others, tries to smuggle weapons into Gaza or manufactures them there. Hamas refuses Israel's demands, backed by the US, EU and others, that it disarm.
It has said it is willing to hand over some power in Gaza to enable its long-time rival, Western-backed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to lead Gaza reconstruction efforts but that it would not give up its arsenal and control over thousands of armed men.
The Gaza war grew out of the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank in June. Israel blamed the killings on Hamas and launched a massive arrest campaign, rounding up hundreds of the group's members in the West Bank, as Hamas and other militants unleashed rocket fire from Gaza. Israel says the West Bank organizers of the terror cell, who is under arrest, has admitted the June killings were ordered and funded by Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas refused to extend the ceasefire and vowed to renew rocket attacks after Israel rejected all of the group's core demands in indirect talks in Cairo, senior Hamas officials stated Friday. Hamas had demanded that Israel agree, in principle, to end Gaza's border closure, release Hamas operatives arrested in recent weeks in the West Bank, and other measures.
"We have one position, we refuse to extend the ceasefire, it is a final decision," said one Hamas official after a long meeting with Egyptian mediators, AFP reported.
"Israel did not propose anything," he added. "It did not agree to end the blockade [of the Gaza Strip]."
On Wednesday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Israel was prepared to strike Hamas leaders when they emerge from hiding, and warned that the army would retaliate strongly if the terror organization resumed firing rockets at Israel.
"Its commanders sit in their bunkers in hiding, and everywhere we can hit them, we will hit, if we want to. They will go outside when they please - if they do, they will see the extent of the damage to their fighters and the damage in the Gaza Strip, which unfortunately, is Hamas's fault. I hope this lesson will be internalized in the Gaza Strip, because we will not hesitate to continue to mobilize our forces as necessary to ensure the security of Israeli citizens," he said.
"We aren't done," Gantz added. "If there are incidents, we will respond to them."
Despite the withdrawal of all its troops from Gaza by the time the three-day truce began early on Tuesday, Israel has retained tens of thousands of troops along the border who are ready to respond to any resumption of fighting.
For Cairo deal, Israel calls for ban in Gaza on all but light arms, free hand against tunnels, rocket plants - http://www.debka.com/article/24168/For-Cairo-deal-Israel-calls-for-ban-in-Gaza-on-all-but-light-arms-free-hand-against-tunnels-rocket-plants
debkafile reports exclusively on the terms Israel handed in to the Cairo talks Wednesday Aug. 6 for a durable peace on the Gaza Strip. In the document Shin Bet Director Yoram Cohen, who leads the Israeli delegation, put before the Egyptian intermediaries, the first key condition is based on the Oslo 2 Accords, which restricted Palestinian brigades in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria to bearing light firearms. The second condition would grant the Israeli military the freedom of action to strike a tunnel system designed for terrorist attacks and demolish plants manufacturing missiles.
Israel requires these two measures to be incorporated in any accords reached at the Cairo conference.
The 19-year old Oslo 2 accord, concluded in Washington on Sept. 28 1995, permitted Palestinian security forces to be equipped solely with light firearms take booty by Israel in the Galilee Peace operation against Palestinian forces in southern Lebanon.
The application of this provision to the Cairo accords, if signed, would outlaw Hamas' possession of rockets of all types and heavy or sophisticated weaponry of any kind.
This provision has replaced Israel's original demand for the full demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. Its implementation would require Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to get rid of all their heavy weapons, including heavy machine guns and mortars.
Other members of the Israeli delegation are Yitzhak Molcho, personal adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Amos Gilead, political coordinator at the Defense Ministry.
They submitted five more terms for a Gaza deal:
1. An inspection mechanism, whose nature remains to be determined, will be set up to monitor the 1-3 km deep security belt Israel is carving out inside the Gaza Strip along the 75 kilometers of its security border fence. This mechanism will ascertain that no military activity takes place.
2. Gaza will not be allowed to have either an airport or a deep water port, as Hamas is demanding.
3. All reconstruction work in the Gaza Strip or repairing the war damage, whether by the international community or Israel, will be channeled through the Palestinian Authority Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.
4. All of Gaza's border crossings will be manned and operated by Palestinian Authority security personnel. Egypt and Israel have submitted this demand with regard to both their border terminals.
5. Gaza reconstruction work will take place under international supervision.
debkafile's sources in Cairo report that, after the senior Palestinian negotiator Assam Ahmed found acceptable Israel's terms regarding Gaza armaments, a heated altercation erupted between the PA and Hamas delegations. Some Hamas envoys threatened to walk out if those terms were tabled and its own rejected. For now, they have refused to extend the three-day truce beyond Friday, Aug. 8.
The Israeli envoys figure that the negotiations may well stretch out over weeks, if not months.
Israel's War Not Against Palestinians - Lonnie C. Mings - www.cfijerusalem.org
In the last few days I have been hearing people talk about Israel's "war against the Palestinians." First of all, Israel is not interested in going to war against anyone. Secondly Israel's current actions are NOT against the Palestinians. There are many Palestinians in Israel with whom the Jewish people live in peace. In the third place, Israel did not start this war. It was started in response to (1) Hamas' relentless rocket fire on southern Israeli towns and cities, and (2) the abduction and murder of three Jewish boys who were doing nothing but going about their lives. There is another amazing story about this incident and the connection to the IDF going into Gaza, which we will cover in another IND Weekly.
Unless the name "Palestinian" is coterminous with the name "Hamas," then Israel's war is not against the Palestinians.
Hamas is a terrorist group whose stated aim is to "wipe Israel off the map." Not only had Hamas stockpiled rockets in Gaza with the intent of making a surface hell for Israel, but in their intense hatred of the Jews they had created a labyrinth of tunnels underground beneath Israel with the purpose of carrying out what they hoped would be the "end game" when their murderous minions would emerge on Rosh Hashana (New Years) and initiate simultaneous mayhem all over the breadth and length of Israel.
In some ways this almost appears to be a contest between Allah and Yahweh. Hamas doesn't seem to be aware that they are giving their deity a terrible reputation. It is a well-known psychological fact that sometimes people create a god in their own image, based on their own personalities. I would tentatively suggest that Hamas, and other radicals like them, have created their own unloving deity who, they hope, will help them wipe out the one race of people they love to hate. It is also the one race of people that God has singled out-and set apart, which puts Hamas in the untenable position of fighting against the true God.
In their utter cowardice and lack of all decency and humanity, they put their women and children in harm's way. Hamas leaders claim that they "love death." No, as pointed out in the August IND, they only love death for other people-not themselves. This is proved by the fact that the leaders themselves are hiding out in Qatar, Kuwait (or other "safe" Arab countries).
While I'm at it, I might point out that when the bleeding-heart western media join in and scold Israel for
responding forcefully, what they really want the Jews to do is to lie down and play dead. The world has been asking Jews to do this for centuries-they didn't like meek Jews whom they tried to kill all through the Middle Ages. Now we have fighting Jews who are tired of dying for their detractors, and people don't like these Jews either. But I would advise anti-Semites to get over it. All they are doing is displaying to the world their own twisted mentality that cannot muster love for anyone except those who are exactly like them in their own narrow racist views.
Israel's God Comes to the Rescue
A number of incidents have taken place during this war that have been called miracles. For the sake of clarification, a miracle is a temporary suspension, or change, in the laws of nature. Not everything that appears to be a miracle is really one, although some recent stories come close to what most people call miracles.
Here is a story by an Iron Dome technician, who in some ways is a scientist. Before this incident, this man wasn't sure there even was a God.
"I observed the hand of G-d today with my own eyes. Now I know FOR SURE that there is a G-d!! No one told me...I didn't hear it from someone else...I saw this happen with my own eyes. I am an integral part of the Iron Dome operation. What we do here is an exact science and I cannot give many details of what we do. The other day we knew that a missile was headed directly for Tel Aviv...aimed at one of the three big towers, a shopping center in the middle of the city. We sent up one missile to intercept it, and we missed. We sent a second one, and we missed. We sent a third one to intercept...and we missed. Something even remotely like this has only happened one other time that I am aware of. We are very exact and very good at what we do. We do not miss. So to miss three times is not possible. By this time, disaster was imminent.
We alerted all of the emergency crews within and around Tel Aviv to evacuate, but by this time there was little that could be done. Their [Hamas] missile was only minutes from detonation. We began the procedure of sending off one final missile to try to intercept it just before it came down, but we knew that casualties would still be inevitable. Now, you must understand, our calculations based on physics and aerodynamics and weather (wind, atmosphere, humidity) are complete...there is NOTHING we don't take into account. This is how it is able to work so precisely.
But all of a sudden, as we were scrambling to do anything and everything we could to save Tel Aviv, all of a sudden OUT OF NOWHERE came up a huge [strong] wind...one that was not on the radar...one that DID NOT EXIST before...and blew the missile from over Tel Aviv all the way into the Sea [Mediterranean] and dropped it off exactly safely into the water where no one was injured!!! You must understand...there was NO WIND...and then there was A HUGE WIND. This is not a couple of inches of a "move" that any gentle breeze could influence...this is MILES. It was nothing other than the hand of G-d!! I saw it with my very own eyes!!! The wind was not there before and it was not there after-it came from NOWHERE. And after it moved the missile to the sea, it disappeared! So, after seeing this, I can no longer deny the existence of G-d. I put t'fillin (phylacteries) on right after this, and I took upon myself to keep Shabbat. Yesterday was my first Shabbat to keep and it was the best Shabbat of my life" (www. yahadisrael.com).
Some Scriptures that all-especially Israel's detractors-need to heed and be forewarned:
"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations... All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem" Zechariah 12:3, 9
Israel-Hamas talks to open in Cairo after 72-hour ceasefire - http://www.debka.com/article/24164/Israel-Hamas-talks-to-open-in-Cairo-after-72-hour-ceasefire-Netanyahu-faces-credibility-gap-at-home-
Israel and a Palestinian delegation to talks in Cairo, including Hamas, were due to start observing a 72-hour ceasefire in the Gaza Strip starting Tuesday, Aug. 5, at 8 a.m., to be followed by negotiations under Egyptian aegis for a long-term cessation of hostilities.
This decision flies in the face of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's solemn pledge 48 hours earlier to continue Operation Defensive Edge until Hamas and its terrorist allies stopped firing rockets (a massive barrage was fired up to five minutes to eight).
He stated that Israel was turning away from ceasefire accords, which Hamas had violated six times causing IDF fatalities, and reserving its military and diplomatic freedom of action to act solely in its own security interests. "No accommodation, only deterrence" was the motto of the moment Saturday night, Aug. 2.
Even as he spoke, the bulk of Israel's ground troops were on their way out of the Gaza Strip. But he assured the public that they were regrouping and refreshing ranks for a new, offensive formation that would stand ready to cross back in a trice if necessary.
But already then, the prime minister had quietly conceded to the demands of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and US Foreign Secretary John Kerry to withdraw IDF contingents from the Gaza Strip. This was in obedience to Hamas' precondition for talks, following which Israeli envoys would present themselves in Cairo for indirect negotiations on a long-term accommodation with Hamas through Egyptian intermediaries.
The slogan designed for the goal of these talks was now: "Rehabilitation in exchange for demilitarization."
By Monday, when the ceasefire deal was already in the bag, the prime minister, defense minister Moshe Ya'alon and a group of senior officers led by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, met the community leaders of the 250,000 Israelis whose homes and lands abut the Gaza Strip. They promised the communities that, for the first time in 13 years, they would be safe from Palestinian rocket fire.
The IDF would build a new security fence enclosing Gaza like the barrier along the Egyptian border and instal a home guard system backed by electronic sensors and other gadgets in all their communities.
Doubters, who wondered how a fence would stop rockets and the underground terror tunnels burrowed surreptitiously under their homes, were not heeded. By then, tens of thousands of reservists called up for the Gaza war were being released and columns of tanks and heavy equipment were heading north.
The military traffic rolling away from the Gaza Strip was so heavy Monday night that the police issued a notice to civilian drivers using those roads.
When the 72-hour ceasefire was announced after midnight Monday, a "high-ranking Israel official" noted that if the ceasefire holds, an Israeli military presence in Gaza will not be necessary. He said Israel had upheld its commitment not to accept ceasefire deal with Hamas, so long as it was accompanied by preconditions and until the terror tunnels were dismantled. The 32nd tunnel was destroyed Monday night, he announced, and the work would continue henceforth on the Israeli side of the border.
A former National Security Adviser Gen (res) Giora Eiland, summed up the month-long Israeli military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip as a draw between the two adversaries, with neither side the winner. This judgment, shared by many military experts contradicted the way the operation's outcome is presented by the prime minister and defense minister who directed it. They describe Hamas as reeling from the heavy damage the IDF wrought to its military machine and weakened enough to be finished off at the negotiating table in Cairo.
Israel reckons that around 50 percent of the 1,867 Gazans estimated killed and 9,500 injured in the operation were Hamas or Islamic Jihad fighters.
The damage was undoubtedly heavy, but still Hamas has come out of the Israeli offensive standing on its feet, an outcome that will have profound political and security ramifications upon and beyond the forthcoming Cairo negotiations.
The reality facing Israel's war planners at home is also grim: For the first time, the country comes out of a major conflict with a domestic refugee problem. Longtime inhabitants of the region around the Gazan border who have lost homes, property or livelihood have nothing to return to after the ceasefire.
There are no official figures for Israel's internal refugee problem, but it is believed that up to half of the quarter of a million people inhabiting 57 communities, many of them kibbutzim and private farms, who fled during the hostilities, may refuse to return.
While many endured 13 years of on-and-off rocket fire, they are consumed by the dread of Hamas terrorists jumping out of tunnels in their fields, classrooms or kitchens.
They point to negative side of the IDF official statement: "We have destroyed all the tunnels we know about" as being far from an ironclad guarantee to have obliterated that menace. And the rockets never let up for a single day in the month-long IDF operation - 3,300 in all.
Israel's first ghost villages are clearly visible to the enemy and no doubt chalked up on the credit side of the Hamas war ledger.
Haim Yelin, head of the Eshkol District Council said Monday that 75 percent of the frontline population has moved north. He said he believes the assurances he received from Netanyahu and Ya'alon that the IDF has solved the tunnel threat and would provide the communities with protection against new tunnels. But he said, people are no longer willing to live under the threat of terrorist rocket fire, which they don't believe has been finally curbed.
This credibility gap is part of the general unease over the outcome of this long-delayed counter-terror operation. It started out with 86 percent of the population canvassed holding high hopes of curing the festering terrorist woe emanting from the Gaza Strip. But now, Israel's leaders, no less than Hamas, face a rehabilitation challenge - not just the reconstruction of damaged businesses, farms and buildings, but also of faith in government.
Supporting Hamas over Israel - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjoyt.com
It is truly a sign that the world is upside down when you have people protesting Israel's right to defend itself. People, let's get real. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose goal is to kill every Jewish man, woman, and child. There are people who support this madness? Reuters reports Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan declared Sunday, "They kill women so that they will not give birth to Palestinians; they kill babies so that they won't grow up; they kill men so they can't defend their country ...They will drown in the blood they shed." He compared the Jews to Hitler. This is one of the occupant of the Oval Office's primary foreign policy partners. What does this say about the times we live in? A lot.
The US "president's" ally makes an outrageous statement comparing Jews to Hitler and there is no response or rebuke from the White House. That tells us a lot. This statement by Erdogan should have been met with outrage by world leaders. The facts are that Hamas had been raining down missiles on Israeli civilians for months without Israeli retaliation. As soon as Israel moves to defend itself, the news media and the politicians cry foul. Hamas parades out all the civilians that Israel's mighty military has "murdered" and the world begins to side with one of the most brutal and single-focused terror agents on earth. America's Secretary of State tries to broker peace by involving Turkey and Qatar, trusted Hamas funders.
When Hamas agrees to ceasefires. Israel does its part, even sends medical supplies and aid to the enemy. All the while, Hamas is using the time of ceasefire to regroup for yet another assault. This is standard operating procedure. Meantime, Hamas and its ally al Qassam Brigades posted some 60-plus pictures of Israelis the organization has killed, saying, "We killed 150 Zionist soldiers. Here's photo of killed soldiers which the Zionist Enemy, Israel officially recognized." CNS News reported July 28 that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said, "And we have to confer with the Qataris, who have told me over and over again that Hamas is a humanitarian organization." The Hamas leader operates out of Qatar.
So-called "leaders" like Pelosi should be run out of office. Hamas should not be considered anything but an enemy to humanity. Let us remember when President George W Bush forced Israel to evacuate Gaza. He and his globalist buddies set up "free elections" in Gaza. The people there elected Hamas to represent them. So much for a "Palestinian" state living side by side with Israel in peace. Israel gives every civilian ample opportunity to get out of the way of war when it strikes. They choose to stay because they support Hamas. Politicians, some Americans, Islamists living in America who support Hamas are supporting brutal terrorists. Jesus said in Matthew 24:4, "Take heed that no man deceive you."
IDF quietly carves out 1-3km security strip while pulling troops out of Gaza - http://www.debka.com/article/24160/IDF-quietly-carves-out-1-3km-security-strip-while-pulling-troops-out-of-Gaza-A-humanitarian-truce-declared-
After withdrawing the bulk of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip in a "new phase" of its counter-terror operation, Israel declared a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire for seven hours starting 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 4 to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid and for displaced Palestinians to return to their homes. Eastern Rafah was not included. The IDF would respond to any attacks during that time.
But on the quiet, the IDF was on the process of conducting a major strategic operation, carving out a buffer strip or cordon sanitaire just inside the Gaza border, designed to be controlled from outside by special forces and armored units on round-the-clock alert, to bar hostile infiltrations. They are equipped with a battery of firing posts, sensors and drones.
This sterile strip runs 65km from Beit Hanoun in the north to Khan Younis in the south, roughly following one of Gaza's only motorways, Highway 6 (see map).
All the territory east of this line up to the Israeli border has been cleared of buildings and vegetation to a depth of 1 km in the north and center of Gaza and 2-3 km deep in such areas as Khan Younis.
These dimensions were calculated to reduce Palestinian rocket fire against Israel's southern communities, and deter Hamas from planning new tunnels.
The Israel troops pulled out of Gaza are redeploying in a new formation as a "breakthrough force" - able to cross back into Gaza for rapid response operations if necessary. It is made up of large armored units, special operations contingents and air force, and is highly mechanized rather than fielding soldiers on foot. This force is capable of raids that penetrate deeper into the territory than ventured by the IDF in the first 27 days of Operation Defensive Edge.
For the new phase of its operation, the Netanyahu government has determined to have no truck with the Hamas terrorists and, irrespective of its demands and terms for a ceasefire, to act on its own initiative in accordance with Israel's own security needs. This policy has impacted on the Gaza truce negotiations which go into their second day in Cairo Monday. Their participants cannot avoid appreciating that Israel has followed its own operationall plans for redeployment outside the Gaza Strip.
At the same time, military experts warn that the new military formation opens up the prospect of a prolonged war of attrition. Hamas and Islamic Jihad are keeping up their rocket and mortar fire on Israel - up to 140 Sunday alone. After a quiet night, the first rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome over Ashdod and Ashkelon at 6:30 a.m. Monday.
The threat of "synchronized" terror attacks through still undiscovered tunnels has been sharply reduced by the massive IDF effort to disable the network - but there is no guarantee that all of the tunnels have been discovered, or that new ones are not being burrowed under the border.
Saturday night, three dusty motorcycles were pulled out of the 3-km long Rafah tunnel through which suicide bombers surprised and killed three Givati officers Thursday 90 minutes into an international ceasefire. They were intended for use by six terrorists for a raid or raids far from the immediate environs of the Gaza border.
So Hamas still holds the advantage of nasty surprise.
Israel's victorious withdrawal from Gaza - Yossi Melman - http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/39097-140803-analysis-israel-s-victorious-withdrawal-from-gaza
Newly forged special relationship with Egypt, weakening of Hamas are two of Israel's achievements in Gaza op
After 27 days and 63 Israeli Defense Forces fatalities, the war is over. At least as far as Israel is concerned. The unilateral withdrawal is a political decision informed by military considerations. The IDF has set up a line of defense within the buffer zone of three kilometers from the Gaza border, parallel with moving its troops out of the Hamas-controlled enclave. Granted, should Hamas keep firing rockets, the IDF will return to operational mode and bomb Gaza from air, with the repeat of the ground incursion very much on the table.
All these moves are coordinated with Egypt. Israel's security coordination with Egypt during the operation has been unprecedentedly close; from Israel's viewpoint, the special relation with the north-African ally is its most important strategic asset in the region, and the main achievement from this war.
The IDF is set to demolish the last of the tunnels on Sunday, meaning 31 Hamas tunnels leading into Israel were uncovered and decommissioned during the operation. These were tunnels intended for attacking Israel, and a huge amount of military equipment was found inside, including motorcycles, bulletproof vests, munitions and rocket launchers, as well as provisions that could last the fighters some time.
The destruction of the tunnels was the stated goal of the IDF at the start of the ground incursion 17 days ago; prior to that, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's motto was "quiet shall be reciprocated with quiet."
What cemented the decision of the members of the government's security cabinet to go ahead with the unilateral retreat was the Friday morning incident, which resulted in the death of Lt. Hadar Goldin and two other soldiers; Thursday night, after consulting with Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen and talks with the Egyptians and the Americans, Israel agreed to the 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire during which talks aimed to restore quiet were slated to start. Hamas leadership announced it was prepared to accept the truce that went into effect at 8 AM and lasted 80 minutes. At 9.20 the incident where the IDF soldiers lost their lives had already played out.
That was the straw the broke the back of the camel. Israel realized there's no point in talks, including mediated ones, after the group broke the previous truces. In the cabinet meeting that lasted until 2 AM on Saturday night it was decided to start the unilateral withdrawal, in coordination with Egypt.
A factor that contributed to the decision was the news that tunnels Hamas put five years of work and tens of millions of dollars into were destroyed within two weeks of accelerated activity of the IDF. Additionally, the terror group's rocket stockpiles dwindled from some nine thousand to about 2500. Over four thousand rockets were destroyed in addition to some 2800 that were fired at Israel.
This marks the start of disarmament of Hamas, in the knowledge that in the future Egypt will closely monitor and destroy the tunnels when and if the Rafah border crossing is reopened. According to IDF estimates between 700 and 800 Hamas terrorists and operatives were killed - about 45% of the total Gaza toll. Yet that's a small consolation. A "mere" 800 civilians were killed, including many children. Despite the IDF's efforts to prevent casualties among the civilian population, Israel should be very unhappy with this figure.
The bottom line is that Hamas was severely battered and humiliated, and the heavy toll to the civilian population of Gaza could hurt the organization's image further. No wonder Hamas pleaded for a ceasefire a few days ago, which it then violated. IDF is hoping that this will serve as deterrence to Hamas and bring several years of quiet to Israel's south. One should mention here the Second Lebanon War and its aftermath. What seemed at first like a tactical failure and a Hezbollah victory was a huge strategic achievement by Israel that brought eight years of quiet to its north.
Israeli troop exit from Gaza without achieving all goals bodes war of attrition - http://www.debka.com/article/24158/Israeli-troop-exit-from-Gaza-without-achieving-all-goals-bodes-war-of-attrition
As the first Israel troops began pulling out of the Gaza Strip Saturday night, Aug. 2, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged that Operation Defense Edge would continue until security and calm are restored to all Israel's citizens - however long it takes. But in his televised news conference, he also said: "The IDF will deploy according to the needs of Israel's security - and only Israel's security."
After expressing deep gratitude to the American people and its leaders for their support, Netanyahuu underlined the importance of the links Israel had established with regional countries as a great asset for the future.
In the view of debkafile's military experts, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon have been guided in their management of the Gaza operation by four major misapprehensions:
1. That Hamas wanted a ceasefire;
2. That the Hamas tunnel network has been largely discovered and disabled;
3. That Hamas will take years to recover from the thrashing the IDF administered in the 25 days of its counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip. (Netanyahu: "We struck many thousands of terror targets and many hundreds of terrorists.")
4. That rocket fire will die down after Hamas fully appreciates the terrible devastation its war has inflicted on the Gaza Strip population.
The slogans of the last four weeks reflected these assumptions: "Quiet will be met with quiet" was one, or "We shall degrade Hamas' military strength," and "We'll wipe out Hamas' entire tunnel empire."
But a change in tenor was apparent Saturday night: Variations on the theme of "No accommodation, only deterrence" were to be heard, as well as "No more ceasefires," and "We'll end the operation unilaterally as and when it suits our security needs."
Those ideas reflected the rationale for Israel's decision not to send envoys to the truce talks opening in Cairo Sunday.
Shortly before the Netanyahu-Ya'alon news conference, the parents and siblings of the captured Israeli officer, 2nd Lt, Hadar Goldin appeared before reporters for a moving appeal to the prime minister, defense minister and chief of staff not to evacuate Israeli troops from Gaza before ecovering the missing officer. His father and four siblings, all IDF officers on reserve or active service, maintained that it was unthinkable according to the most hallowed traditions of the Israeli army to abandon a serviceman in the field..
One of the prime minister's answers to reporters' questions can be traced to the deep impression the Goldin family made on the public. He said the IDF will act solely according to security and no other considerations.
The new set of war slogans are designed to soften the impact of a decision reached by the two war leaders last week, which was to pull the bulk of the troops out of the Gaza Strip and redeploy them behind the border fence in offensive formation. The Rafah sector in the south will remain beleaguered.
As for the claim that all the tunnels will be dealt with first, debkafile reports that despite the weeks of fighting, the IDF has driven no deeper than 1-3 kilometers into the territory, leaving the western areas untouched. Therefore, the soldiers can only deal with the tunnels that come out in the eastern sector or cross under the border into Israel.
To truly finish off the warren of passageways, the IDF needs to burrow much farther west- up to their starting points. But Hamas, with the help of Iranian and Hizballah engineers, constructed the labyrinthine system so that each tunnel forks off into another passage every few dozen or hundred meters. Some of these interconnected passageways lead under the border to places in Israel; others go further underground in Gaza.
The system is totally baffling. IDF spokesmen have said repeatedly that the troops have more or less dealt with the tunnels, while the politicians promise this will be done. They are anxious to allay people's visceral dread of ferocious enemies jumping out of the bowels of the earth on kibbutz lawns, a terror that has driven more people north than even the rockets.
The truth is that only the tunnel sections reaching the Israeli border have been neutralized, whereas the honeycomb buried deep inside territory which the IDF has not reached has defied Israeli intelligence's best efforts.And the surprises keep on coming. A capacious, cement-lined passageway leading into Israel was revealed Saturday night with two motorcycles parked inside, ready for terrorists to make a dash to their prey.
As for the rocket fire, Hamas still holds more than a third of the 9,000 rockets with which it launched its blitz - more than enough to keep Israeli civilians within a wide radius running for cover. The IDF has seriously trashed rocket production plants, but at least one-fifth of the facilities remain functional and can continue to replenish depleted stocks.
The assumption that Hamas will need years to recover may turn out to be a losing gamble if Iran and Hizballah decide to step in and rehabilitate their Palestinian ally from scratch.
At all events, if the IDF pulls back the bulk of its ground forces now, with its goals only partly attained, Israel and the communities and towns bordering Gaza will soon be caught up in a lengthy war of attrition and forced to repeat the ground operation.
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