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IDF predicts Hamas will renew rocket attacks within 24 hours

Dec. 28, 2008
Yaakov Katz, JPost.com staff and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Despite heavy losses sustained by Hamas just two days into the IDF military operation Cast Lead, defense officials predict that the Islamic group will significantly increase its rocket barrages in the next 24 hours, possibly employing projectiles which can hit more than 40 kilometers into Israeli territory.

By Sunday evening, the death toll in the Gaza Strip had risen to over 280, Palestinian sources said, as IAF aircraft continued their bombings of Hamas targets.

IAF jets struck 40 smuggling tunnels connecting the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of Rafah, a Gaza Strip border town which has become a main entry point into Gaza of weapons, dynamite and other smuggled foreign military equipment and consumer goods. According to reports, the bombing took a total of four minutes.

Since the beginning of the operation, 230 sorties were flown by fighter jets, 56 sorties by attack helicopter, and 23 sorties by other aircraft.

Also on Sunday, IDF artillery batteries deployed along the Gaza Strip border, an indication that the firepower used by the military until this point may intensify in the coming days.

Earlier, two Palestinians were killed in the Jebalya village in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. They were reportedly killed by missiles fired by Israeli aircraft.

Overall the IAF attacked some 30 targets in Gaza on Sunday, bringing the total number of targets hit to approximately 240.

IAF aircraft struck one of Hamas's main security compounds in Gaza City Sunday morning, including the Seraya compound [a prison] in downtown Gaza on which IAF jets dropped three bombs, according to witnesses. The blast shattered windows nearby, including some at the office of The Associated Press.

At the Seraya compound, rescue teams started digging through the rubble. Hamas police fired in the air to keep away worried relatives of prisoners.

Aircraft on Sunday targeted a Gaza tanker truck carrying smuggled fuel, touching off a blaze that raged out of control and spread to about a dozen nearby houses, sending acrid plumes of black smoke towering above southern Gaza, witnesses and firefighters reported.

Palestinians said one of the main medicine warehouse supplying local pharmacies in southern Gaza was attacked in another sortie. "This is going to make us unable to supply any of the local families that depend on us," warehouse owner Dr. Hussam Abu Hashem told local Hamas radio. "It's a war against human beings."

Local residents said the tanker and the warehouse contained supplies that had been smuggled in from Gaza through underground tunnels with Egypt, suggesting that Israel was widening its offensive to go after businesses that are a source of income for Hamas.

Palestinians said aircraft targeted a mosque near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, destroying it. Two bodies were retrieved from the rubble. The army said the mosque was a base for terrorist activities.

Palestinian sources reported early Sunday morning that IAF aircraft had targeted the Al Aqsa TV station used by Hamas.

The studio building was destroyed, but the station remained on the air with a mobile unit, the sources said.

On Saturday night, IAF aircraft attacked a Kassam launching crew in Gaza, killing three of its members. Palestinians said four others were wounded in the attack.

IDF tanks were making their way from the Golan Heights to the south of Israel in the morning hours and ground troops massed at the Gaza border. Barak told Sky News that the military would deploy ground troops if necessary but avoided providing additional details.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak allowed crossings into Gaza to be opened on Sunday for humanitarian aid to go through, signaling to the world that Israel was fighting a war against Hamas in Gaza but not against the civilian population.

Thirty humanitarian aid trucks were set to pass into the Gaza Strip Sunday. Defense officials said that the number of trucks was decided upon in coordination with international aid groups.

Israel also planned to allow some Palestinians wounded in Saturday's offensive on Hamas to enter Israel to receive medical treatment.

Officials said the decision to open the crossings and offer assistance to the wounded was part of Israel's effort to create international legitimacy for its continued operations against Hamas.

The military reported that a very low percentage of civilians were killed in the strikes, citing on 15 known cases of collateral damage.

Nevertheless, defense officials said Sunday that Israel would not hesitate to target the homes of civilians who protected Hamas terrorists throughout the operation.

"We will go after every Hamas operative, no matter where he is," they said. "We call on Palestinians not to cooperate with terrorists."

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