Israel Matzav

We cease and they fire

The cease fire hudna went into effect at 6:00 AM today. It's now a bit before 9:00 (don't believe the time at the bottom of my posts - blogger is about seven minutes fast) and already we have three Kassams that have been shot into the western Negev, one of which hit an open area, one of which hit Sderot, and a third one whose landing spot is still apparently unknown. No one was wounded and no damage has been reported.

"Let's hope that's just the problems of the beginning," government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said. "But if Israel is attacked, we will respond. If there are Palestinian factions that are not part of the cease-fire, it's hard to see how the cease-fire will hold."

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ghazi Hamed also criticized the attacks, telling BBC Arabic that the rocket fire was a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire.

Hamed added that all Palestinian factions had taken part in the agreement on Saturday.

All of them except for the ones that didn't....

The agreement, according to Israeli officials, did not apply to military actions in the West Bank. The key now, the officials said, would be to see whether indeed all the different Palestinian factions have signed on - and would honor - the cease-fire agreement.

...

Washington was full of praise for the cease-fire agreement.

A White House spokesman said that it viewed the joint announcement as "a positive step," adding that the US hoped the agreement would diminish the bloodshed between the Israelis and Palestinians.

However, the armed faction of the Islamic Jihad and Abu Reish, an armed faction of Fatah, both announced early Sunday that they were not part of the ceasefire agreement.

A spokesman for Abu Reish denied the movement's participation in Saturday's meeting between Palestinian Authority Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian factions during which the ceasefire was agreed.

I want you all to understand something. Think of the 'Palestinian' terrorists as a professional sports league (l'havdil). When one 'team' declares a cease fire and they want to keep playing, they just put on a different uniform. That's what's going on here. This will escalate so long as Israel restrains itself, while Abu Mazen and Haniyeh will apologize for not being able to control these people. Once Israel has had enough (i.e. when enough people are God forbid killed), and after Hamas and Fatah have had time to regroup and resupply, the IDF will be sent back in, and Abu Mazen and Haniyeh will say that Israel violated the 'cease fire' hudna, and therefore they had no choice but to let their groups act. We Israelis have all been there and done this hudna thing before. This is how it works.

Update 10:18 AM

We are now up to five Kassams, one of which landed near the Sderot cemetery.

The Givati Brigade left Gaza early this morning.

Defenseless Minister Amir Comrade Peretz is quoted as saying

"Any rocket fire at Israel will be considered a breach of the cease-fire and will be dealt with severely," and that, "Israel is interested in calm but not at the cost of harm inflicted on its citizens."

Nu????

Update 1:48 PM

A few details about this morning. From JPost:

A total of five Kassam rockets have been aimed at Israel since a cease-fire agreement with the Palestinian government went into effect at 6 a.m.

One struck a house in Sderot at 5:30, wreaking havoc. The father of the family had managed to wake his children and shepherd them into the bomb shelter a mere 10 seconds before the rocket impact.

Another landed in the vicinity of the Sderot cemetery.

Sounds like one of those may not have technically been a violation.

Hamas reported on the group's official Web site that they had launched rockets into Israel at 7:30 a.m. and 7:55 a.m., saying they had not stopped their attacks because some Israeli troops remained inside Gaza.

The Givati infantry Brigade, which had been conducting anti-Kassam operations, left Gaza early Sunday morning.

So at least some rockets were launched by Hamas. And you thought they were going along with this. (Note that the earlier report only mentioned Islamic Jihad and Abu Mazen's Fatah's Abu Rish Brigades).

From YNet:

It remains unclear whether aircraft are authorized to open fire at terrorist cells transporting rockets from caches in Beit Hanoun to Jabalya, where explosives and metal balls are placed in them.

A minor detail of course.

From Pajamas Media based on an earlier YNet report:

A Kassam rocket fired from Gaza landed north of Sderot about an hour after a ceasefire by Israel and Palestinian groups was supposed to go into effect at 6 a.m. Sunday. - it was the first of five rocket attacks. The Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, have claimed responsibility saying that “there is no point in discussing a ceasefire as long as the Israeli offensive continues.” Islamic Jihad had been the first armed Palestinian faction to notify Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that its gunmen would refrain from launching Qassams should Israel halt its attacks on the Strip.

And does that surprise anyone?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:57 AM