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Commentary;
The results of the first day on the ground show that Operation Cast Lead will be anything but a cake-walk. Israel lost her first ground fatality;
St.-Sgt. Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, from Givat Ze’ev and of the Golani reconnaissance unit, was killed on Sunday by mortar shell shrapnel during clashes with Hamas terrorists near Jabalya.
Meanwhile, Ynet’s Roni Sofer reports Olmert’s comments to Tony Blair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev regarding the goals of the operation. These comments leave more questions than they answered.
Sofer reports;
The Prime Minister’s Office said that Olmert presented the three with Israel’s demands for a truce: The end of all projectile fire on Israel, the end of all terror acts, international monitoring of Gaza and the complete disarmament of Hamas. Olmert stressed that Israel will continue its operation in Gaza until its conditions are met.
For instance, how will international monitoring of Gaza insure “complete disarmament of Hamas”? How will international monitors not restrict Israel’s freedom of military movement and how does a sovereign nation tolerate such restriction? Are international forces not the mark of defeat, judging by what we know of them in the 60 year history of Israel’s past wars? We need look no further than the Lebanon model.
And what about Gilad Shalit visa vi any ceasefire?
Why not go back into Gaza to stay? It is Jewish land and the propaganda spins that surrounded the expulsion of Jews have been shown to be naked, devoid of any logic or common-sense and beyond sheer folly.
Consider this, that two cabinet ministers refrained from voting on the expansion of Cast Lead to encompass ground operations. Why? Israel National News reports;
The two refused to vote after their demand to include the toppling of the Hamas regime in Gaza as a goal of the operation was met with silence.
It seems apparent that whatever gains, i.e. severe degradation of Hamas’ weaponry and terror legions will either be negated by ceasefire with international forces in Gaza, and/or by the PA filling a void in Gaza followed by a repetition of arms and terror build-up, as well as renewal of rocket bombardment — this time not by Hamas, but by Abbas’ PA.
In short, the Olmert, Barak, Livni Troika continues to clearly be leading the IDF and Israel down the path of repetition of the Lebanon defeat. MB
IDF Operations in Gaza Affecting Hamas Command-and-Control’, by Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
The IDF split the Palestinian territory in half and began surrounding Gaza City. Hamas, the officials said, was encountering difficulties in commanding and delivering orders to its forces.
Another soldier was critically wounded in the attack. Earlier in the morning, 30 soldiers from Battalion 51 of the Golani Brigade were injured in clashes, and on Sunday night four soldiers were shot and wounded by Palestinian sniper fire.
By Sunday afternoon, the IDF had divided the Gaza Strip into two segments, in a move aimed at cutting off the flow of arms, supplies and fighters to the northern part of the Strip, as Palestinians claimed IDF tanks had taken up positions near the former settlement Netzarim and troops began surrounding Gaza City. Some 40 rockets landed in Israel on Sunday, scoring direct hits in Sderot and Ashkelon.
Military sources said that since Operation Cast Lead was launched last week over 1,000 targets had been bombed by the Air Force. On Sunday, the Palestinian death toll also climbed past 500 as IDF troops killed close to 40 Hamas gunmen during the ground operation in northern Gaza.
Defense officials said that the IDF operation was having an effect on Hamas’s command-and-control capabilities and that the group was not able to mobilize large forces to fight against the IDF. Officials said that it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror chiefs were hiding and conducting their operations from within Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“Hamas operatives are in the hospital and have disguised themselves as nurses and doctors,” one official explained. Military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that Hamas was using mosques, public institutions and private houses as ammunition stores.
Defense officials said that Hamas was trying to kidnap soldiers operating inside the Gaza Strip and that commanders had been ordered to take extra precautions to ensure their soldiers’ safety.
As the ground operation picked up speed, the IDF kept up its pressure on Hamas leaders and began preparing to escalate and deepen its operations in Gaza by using large forces still amassed along the border.
Senior Hamas terrorist Hussam Hamdan, who was in charge of Grad-model Katyusha rocket cells in northern Gaza – behind the attacks on Beersheba and and Ofakim – was killed in an IAF strike in Khan Younis. Another senior Hamas terrorist, Muhammad Hilo, was killed in the same strike. Hilo, the IDF said, was in charge of the Hamas special forces in Khan Younis.
Mohamad Shalpoch, a member of Hamas’s commando forces, was also targeted in an IDF strike near Jabalya on Sunday. It was unclear whether Shalpoch was killed in the strike.
Gaza health officials said around 20 civilians had also died in air strikes and shelling, including a 12-year-old girl, five members of the same family, and another eight civilians killed by a tank shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. The deaths brought the total death toll in the Gaza Strip since last Saturday to more than 500.
Residents of the small northern Gaza community of al-Attatra said soldiers moved from house to house by blowing holes through walls. Most of the houses were unoccupied, their residents having already fled.
Summary of Events Since This Morning (IDF Spokesperson)
Palestinian Terrorists Fire Two Rockets at Ashkelon; No Casualties
IDF: Ground Operation the Only Way to Destroy Infrastructure
Two IDF Soldiers Lightly Wounded in Clashes with Hamas in Gaza
Palestinian Phone Company: Gaza Network Close to Collapse
[11] Retired IDF officers: Schalit Must be Part of Any Cease-Fire Deal, by Shelly Paz (Jerusalem Post)