Israel Update

Thanks to Michael

As I reported earlier, IDF artillery and crack combat units have been called up in preparation for ground operations in Gaza and to repulse any adventures by Lebanese and West Bank terrorist forces. 

Most of the country remains quiet this evening with Tel Aviv and Haifa being the exceptions. The clubs and bars are full of noisy young people, some in uniform in case they are called up. Undeterred by the threats issued by the terrorist savages, young Israelis are doing what they do best....partying!



IDF mobilizing tanks in event of Gaza ground incursion

IDF prepares to intensify operation against Hamas infrastructure in Gaza, sending tanks and infantry reinforcements southward in preparation for possible ground incursion. Throughout day IAF carried out strikes on nearly 100 Hamas targets; Palestinian health officials putting death toll at 225 people

Hanan Greenberg
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3645272,00.html

The Israeli Air Force struck a total of 100 Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday with the launching of the operation dubbed 'Cast Lead.' Palestinian medical officials have reported at least 225 people killed in the Israeli strikes.  

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The IDF has also begun mobilizing tanks and reinforcement infantry troops to the Gaza region in the event a ground incursion is ordered. In an interview with the British SKY network, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that ground forces would indeed enter the Strip if the move was deemed necessary by Jerusalem.

 

Barak did not declare outright that there would be a ground offensive, but said that he could not presume to guess what Hamas' next move would be and therefore was preparing the military for any contingency.

 

In a message tailored to the British public, the defense minister said the British government would also not tolerate incessant attacks against its civilian population.

 

"I remember the British government crossing half the globe to protect British citizens that were attacked," he said.

 

In a later interview with FOX, Barak addressed the American public and said that asking Israel to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas would be like asking the US to agree to a ceasefire with Al-Qaeda.

 

Barak, who suspended all campaigning events for the duration of the operation, will brief government ministers on the progress of the strike in Gaza during Sunday's cabinet meeting.

 

Rocket fire continues

One of the targets bombed in the strike was the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was absent at the time of the strike. Hamas' leadership in Gaza has mostly gone underground in anticipation of an Israeli offensive. Most of the other targets were Hamas warehouses and training centers, at one location a graduation ceremony was in progress for new recruits to the movement's security forces. A number of Qassam-launchers were also hit.

 

During the evening targets in the Gazan neighborhood of Zeitun were targeted, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp. Palestinian news agencies reported three dead in the strikes.

 

Meanwhile, the rocket fire towards Israel continued throughout the day, and by 9 pm 64 rockets had been fired, of them 44 were fired towards Eshkol and Sdot Negev Regional Council and the rest towards Sderot and Ashkelon.

 

The operation had been planned for many months, during which intelligence was gathered on Hamas' facilities in the Strip. The targets were struck over the course of the day, in which the IAF performed dozens of sorties in Gaza. The IDF has stated that this is only the beginning.

 

In photos released by the IDF many of the targets can be seen clearly, and they include a weapons warehouse and a Hamas training facility. Another target hit by the jets was a Hamas security office, which also held a weapons cache. The building had been previously used by snipers and mortar-launching cells.

 

The central outpost for Hamas' aid forces was also bombed, as well as the former office of the deceased Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

 

The IAF also attacked a weapons warehouse that held armored cars, two of which were used by Hamas to carry out the terror attack at Kerem Shalom crossing in 2008, in which several soldiers were killed.

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Next: Israel prepares Gaza ground incursion, Hamas gears for suicide terror

DEBKAfile Special Analysis

December 27, 2008, 11:15 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile's military sources assess the next stage of Israel's Gaza campaign as being a ground incursion of the Gaza Strip, to follow up the air bombardment of Hamas compounds Saturday, Dec. 27. Hamas estimates that in four minutes, dozens of Israeli bombers and helicopters flattened 30 "high profile" sites. At least 350 Palestinians were killed, 90 percent of them Hamas operatives, and between 700 and 800 more were injured. Some of the casualties are still buried under the rubble. The blow sustained by the Palestinian Islamist terrorist group was massive by any military standards and severely upset its military equilibrium. Its retaliation against Israeli towns and villages was therefore slower and smaller in scope that Israel expected.

The fifty plus missiles fired into Israel included a small number of 42-range Grad Katyusha rockets made in Iran. One Israeli was killed and several injured in Netivot and three more hurt when Sderot synagogue too a direct missile hit.

Nonetheless, Hamas will not show a white flag, even after losing hundreds of its military and police personnel, including top commanders, and will make a supreme effort to retaliate from the Gaza Strip as well as mobilizing its substantial Hizballah-backed command center in Lebanon. Hamas operatives will be pressed into service as suicide terrorists. They remain active after Israeli units and Mahmoud Abbas' special forces trained by US and British instructors conducted systematic crackdowns to crush them for more than a year. The second blow in the form of a formidable Israeli ground incursion without delay is therefore imperative to prevent Hamas getting its second wind.

While Israel's air attack is counted a success, its war chiefs are taking care not to be trapped by an early achievement into the sort of blunders which led to the Lebanon war's unsatisfactory conclusion in 2006. That campaign was commanded by a former airman, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, who saw no point in a ground operation after Hizballah's command center was razed by air – until it was too late.

The first objective of a ground force in the coming hours will be to destroy "Lower Gaza," the underground city designed by an Iranian general and spread under most of the enclave's area. This subterranean sanctuary kept the bulk of the Hamas army, 15,000 men, their officers and leaders, out of harm's way during the Israeli air offensive Saturday. Their resistance must be broken before Hamas can be brought to surrender. Until then they will fight on.

The second Israeli objective must be to sever the Gaza Strip from Egypt by recapturing the Philadelphi border strip.

These missions are formidable indeed and may take weeks of ups and downs, which is why prime minister Ehud Olmert's goal of restoring normal lives to the people of southern Israel is a lot less simplistic than it sounds. The air operation was indeed just the beginning.