Israel Matzav

Iran upgrades 'Palestinian' Kassams

DEBKAfile is reporting this evening that the Mad Mullahs of Iran have upgraded the range of the 'Palestinians' Kassam rockets, bringing another 250,000 Israeli civilians within range.

According to DEBKAfile’s military sources, the two missiles which reached the southern part of Ashkelon Tuesday, March 6, were range-finding exercises for the new weapons.

Their manufacturers, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, have overcome the snag which held the radius of Palestinian missiles down to 12-13 km from Gaza and upgraded it to 19 km. Another quarter of a million civilians are now threatened, the populations of the port-resort of Ashkelon, Netivot, Ofakim and the outskirts of Kiryat Gat, as well as important military bases in central Israel. Hamas and Jihad Islami, which took delivery of the new weapons, can now match Hizballah attacks on northern Israel with missile barrages against Israel’s Southwest and its central heartland.

Some of you may recall that last July I posted the distances between the Gaza Strip and several Negev-area towns. According to DEBKAfile there are three reasons why Hamas and Islamic Jihad have not yet let loose with the new rockets:

1. Hamas and Jihad Islami are not yet ready to show their hand; they therefore test-fire the new missiles from deep inside the Gaza so that they land harmlessly in the sand dunes outside Ashkelon. They know that as long as no one is hurt, the Israeli army is under orders to stand aside.

2. Their leaders do not want to provoke an Israeli invasion of Gaza at this time.

Neither has yet perfected its war preparations. More funding and arms consignments are awaited from Iran, to top up their military arsenal and complete their underground fortress. (See separate item on this page).

3. Hamas does not want to break up its unity negotiations with Fatah. Its leaders prefer to keep the talks going on a low fire to mask their war preparations; damaging missile attacks against an Israeli town would derail the process.

But give these people a state reichlet and they will suddenly become 'peaceful.'

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:42 PM