Israel Matzav

Gaza invasion coming? One killed, two seriously wounded in mortar attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz; UPDATE: Video added

An Israeli was murdered and three others were injured - two of them seriously - by shrapnel from a mortar strike by Gaza terrorists on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Thursday morning. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to Israel Radio, the mortar hit a Kibbutz factory.

The strike was reported by Haaretz here but the Israel Radio information is more current.

Arutz Sheva adds:

Kibbutz Nir Oz is located some 25 kilometers southwest of Sderot, meaning the deadly rocket was fired from near the former Jewish towns of Gush Katif in Gaza. Ariel Sharon, who led the Disengagement from Gush Katif, often said that the goal of the unilateral withdrawal and eviction of thousands of Jews was to improve Israel's security.

The lethal rocket was fired just a half-hour after MKs of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and officials from the Homefront Command and National Emergency Authority visited the area and heard about its security issues.

Gaza terrorists have fired rockets at the Eshkol bloc over the past several days, causing several injuries.

...

An angry Chaim Yellin, the Chairman of the Eshkol Regional Council, told Voice of Israel Radio, "All we want is normal life - nothing more! If Gaza has to be conquered, or if an agreement has to be made, then it should be done - but no one is deciding anything! ... The state is unable to protect us."

Asked if there had been a Color Red emergency alert before the rocket slammed down, Yellin said, "Who cares? Who cares now if it was a mortar shell or a Kassam or a katyusha, or what diameter it was? What's important now is that it is precise and it kills."

Will this be enough to get the government to send in the IDF? Olmert is in Washington right now, but governments tend to rise in the polls when they take military action, so I would look for the government to go in after waiting a day or two so that it doesn't look like they're rushing in like they did in Lebanon two years ago. Of course, military action only makes a government popular in the long-term if it's effective, but this government needs all the help it can get right now.

And as far as I am concerned, I'm happy to have the IDF go in regardless of the government's motivation so long as the IDF is not fighting with one arm tied behind its back. I wish I could tell you that will be the case.

UPDATE 1:30 PM

Here's a video report from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Let's go to the videotape.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:02 PM