Israel Matzav

Hamas declares 'victory'

While keeping up intensive air attacks, the IDF has started to withdraw some of its ground forces from the northern Gaza Strip (Beit Hanoun - the area closest to Sderot) and that has Hamas declaring 'victory' this morning.

Hamas declared a "victory" in the Gaza Strip on Monday after the group and residents said Israeli troops had pulled back to the border from positions taken inside the north of the enclave in recent days.

"The enemy has been defeated," a Hamas spokesman said. Israel Radio broadcast a news bulletin from Hamas radio, in which the group said the IDF had failed in itsd efforts to curb Palestinian rocket fire against Negev towns.

Hamas is right about one thing - the rocket fire has continued. More than forty rockets were shot into southern Israel on Sunday. And that's why the IDF cannot let this be the end of what is being called "Operation Warm Winter."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said that the IDF operations in the Gaza Strip in recent days have sent Hamas a clear message that "Israel will not agree to the equation the organization would like to dictate by firing on Ashkelon." [Note that it's Ashkelon - middle class and Ashkenazi - that matters. If it were Sderot, we might still be waiting for the government to let the IDF do something. CiJ]

Olmert instructed the defense establishment to continue with its graduated operations, which he thinks is still useful.

"We will be the ones who create the equations and not Hamas, " Olmert said during the cabinet meeting on Sunday.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said late Sunday night that according to the assessment of senior figures in the defense establishment "the time has come for action. Hamas is responsible and will pay a price. We disengaged from the Strip and we removed settlements so that there will be calm in the communities bordering the Gaza Strip. Now we will use force in order to change the situation."

Barak will hold a meeting today with legal experts and other officials to explore the possibility that the IDF will make use of artillery and airstrikes against populated areas from which rockets are fired.

Meanwhile, IDF operations in the Strip are expected to continue unabated, mostly through air strikes targeting Hamas positions and rocket crews and depots. At the same time, there are plans for consecutive ground operations.

At this stage there are no plans to deploy reservists in the Gaza Strip, except for several dozen specialists who are part of the Home Front Command.

The government didn't expel Jews from the Gaza Strip to bring about calm for the communities bordering the Gaza Strip. At the time, every expert in the world said that would not happen. The government expelled Jews from the Gaza Strip out of its moral obtuseness in which it believed that the 'occupation' is wrong. It's the Jews of the communities that border the Gaza Strip that have paid the price for the government's 'morality.'

What's been going on in the Gaza Strip for the last two and a half years? Listen to the soldiers who just returned from there:

Several fighters who left Gaza on Sunday to freshen up and fuel their vehicles, spoke about the events beyond the border, on the Palestinian side.

"It's not what took place here when we left," one of the fighters said. "The terrorists are more courageous, wily and sophisticated, and it seems like they are part of an army. They also have improved equipment. They were a number of serious battles here in the recent days, but it eventually calmed down a little.

"Over the weekend there were many incidents of antitank missiles fired at us, but we operated well. The Air Force also helped us. We hit many terrorists and there is a feeling of success.

"After the first stage of the fighting we reached a situation of control, which enabled us to comb the area in relative calm, but with many heartbeats of course. After all, Gaza is Gaza."

Among the armor forces there was also a feeling of a more complex challenge this time. However, they said, the post-Second Lebanon War training prepared them to deal with this challenge.

It's a challenge that will only get more complicated and dangerous unless the IDF reoccupies the Gaza Strip.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:09 AM