Security Cabinet approves deeper incursion into Gaza

The Security Cabinet called for prolonged and gradual military action in Gaza and the West Bank, at a meeting Wednesday morning to discuss the Shalit crisis and how to respond to Tuesday's rocket attack on Ashkelon.

A communiqu issued after the meeting said that in light of the kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad Shalit and the continuation of the rocket fire on Israel, "preparations will be made to bring about a change in the rules of the game and mode of operating with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas."

Striking out at Hamas in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, with an emphasis on hitting institutions and infrastructure that "serve terrorism."

Maintaining diplomatic pressure on Syria to ensure Shalit's release. The statement said this would be done while trying to prevent Palestinian civilian casualties as much as possible and ensuring that the humanitarian needs of the population will be met.

Immediately after the security cabinet meeting, Olmert held consultations with Defense Minister Amir Peretz and top security officials to approve the operative steps to achieve these goals.

Simultaneously, the IDF was gearing up for large incursion into northern Gaza through the Erez crossing. Armored vehicles were stationed at Mefalsim and were being loaded on to trucks.

The IDF has been given the green light to enter residential areas, but will not reoccupy the Gaza Strip, an official at the meeting said. A buffer zone will be created in the northern part of the Strip in order to prevent Kassam fire.

Prior to the meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert issued a warning to the Hamas-led government. "[The firing of a Kassam at Ashkelon] is a major escalation that Hamas is responsible for," said Olmert. "The criminal attempt to hurt Israeli citizens will be met with an extraordinary response and the Hamas movement will be the first to feel it," added the prime minister.

The rocket fired Tuesday night traveled 12 kilometers before landing in Ashkelon.

Ashkelon Mayor Roni Mehatzri said that the city's 120,000 residents could not continue to be under threat. "This is a new situation," said Mehatzri, adding, "Although we knew there was chance this would happen, it still surprised us. Our circumstances have now changed," he added.

The security establishment was set to decide whether to comply with the requests of the Ashkelon Municipality and introduce a Kassam rocket early warning system modeled on the Red Dawn system currently used in Sderot. The IDF had previously turned down the request, claiming it was liable to create unnecessary panic among residents.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the IDF to increase its activities in the Gaza Strip as part of "Operation Summer Rains."

Peretz stressed that one of the goals of the operation was to "remove the threat of Kassams."

Ze'ev Boim, a member of the cabinet said, "as far as I'm concerned, the people of (northern Gaza towns) Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya can start packing."

Security Cabinet member Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the only solution to the Kassam crisis is continued targeted assassinations, while speaking to Army Radio on Wednesday morning.

"The only thing that changed the picture was when we went to the terror leaders - when we removed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi - then the picture began changing. Then they understood that no one is immune."

MK Ephraim Sneh (Labor), former deputy defense minister, said that there was "no escape from prolonged ground presence at the launch sites."

Responding to a comment by his Army Radio interviewer that the Palestinians had been launching Kassams in spite of an IDF presence in the Gaza Strip, Sneh said that the government must provide Israel with maximum protection.

"If you want to tell your citizens: I did the maximum," he said, "then this is the maximum."

As for the target of Israeli pressure, Sneh noted that the Hamas leadership in Damascus was behind the recent attacks. He asserted that the Hamas military wing did not listen to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, but rather to Khaled Mashaal in Syria.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,202115,00.html
Israel Authorizes Deeper Army Incursions Into Gaza, Possible Buffer Zone
Wednesday, July 05, 2006

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli leaders on Wednesday authorized the army to send troops into residential areas of Gaza and gave the green light for the military to push ahead with a plan to create a buffer zone meant to prevent militants from firing rockets into Israel, officials said.

The Security Cabinet's decision, stepping up a ground offensive in Gaza, indicated Israel could be prepared to partially reoccupy Gaza less than a year after withdrawing all troops and settlements from the area.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened the urgent meeting after Hamas militants fired a rocket into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon late Tuesday. Although the attack caused no injuries, it was the first time a rocket has flown so far into Israel, signaling that militants have improved the range of the primitive weapons and escalating a crisis over a captured soldier.

After the Security Cabinet meeting, Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz met with top military officials to decide which parts of a broad invasion should be immediately implemented, including the possibility of the buffer zone.

Olmert's office denied the Cabinet had approved the formation of such a zone. But meeting participants said the ministers had all agreed that a standing plan by the army to create a buffer zone could be an effective way of preventing rocket fire.

It was not clear when or if the security zone would be established.

An official statement from Olmert's office gave no details about the military operation, but said the army would continue to go after Hamas militants and their infrastructure. It said the army has been ordered to "prepare for a phased and continuous" operation.

The operation's main goals remain to find the soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants last week and to prevent rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities, the statement said. Israel refuses to negotiate with the militants holding Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

"There will be steps taken and they will be very serious," said Cabinet Minister Yitzhak Herzog, who refused to elaborate on the military's plans. "There is a very broad operation here. It will continue."

Israel occupied a small strip of southern Lebanon for 18 years before withdrawing in 2000. A similar occupation in northern Gaza could be risky.

Israel could establish the security zone in its abandoned former settlements in northern Gaza, vacant lands that militants use to fire rockets and that Israel could seize with relatively little bloodshed.

If Israel wants a broader zone, however, it might have to enter the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, which would likely lead to bloody street battles with militants.

Israel launched its offensive into Gaza last week after Palestinian militants kidnapped Shalit from a military post near the Gaza border. The army has been operating in Gaza, but has avoided sending troops into the strip's dense cities. The rocket attack on Ashkelon changed the equation.

Ahead of Wednesday's ministerial meeting, Israeli aircraft targeted the Palestinian Interior Ministry for the second time in a week, the Israeli military said. Witnesses said missiles hit the main structure and damaged a building next to the ministry. Rescue workers said five people were wounded.

The two top floors of the main building collapsed, and the second building, which provides housing for ministry employees, was set on fire, witnesses said.

In other attacks early Wednesday, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a Hamas camp in southern Gaza and a Hamas-affiliated school in Gaza City, and shelled open areas in the north. A 13-year-old boy was seriously wounded in the head by shrapnel, Palestinian medical officials said.

The rocket fired by Gaza militants Tuesday flew 12 kilometers (7 miles) and exploded in the courtyard of a school in Ashkelon, a city of 110,000 on Israel's seacoast north of Gaza. School security cameras showed a large cloud of white dust rising from the point of impact. The school was empty at the time and no one was hurt.

Although militants have launched many of the small, homemade rockets toward Ashkelon, this was the first one to hit the center of the city. Militants have repeatedly claimed they were developing rockets with longer ranges.

In the hours before the rocket attack, Israeli forces were already operating in northern Gaza looking for tunnels, explosives, weapons warehouses and other facilities used by militants, according to the area army commander.

In a sign militant groups were stepping up their activity, soldiers on Wednesday caught a Palestinian militant in the West Bank with an explosives belt strapped to his waist and ready for use, the army said. The militant was caught in the West Bank settlement of Barkan before he had a chance to detonate his explosives, the army said.

Palestinian officials said the would-be bomber was a 17-year-old member of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

The Hamas-linked militants holding Shalit have demanded that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for information about the captive soldier. On Tuesday, Olmert ignored a deadline to begin freeing the prisoner.

On Tuesday, Olmert ignored a deadline to free Palestinian prisoners set by the Gaza militants holding Shalit.

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