If Moral Doesn't Improve, The Beatings Will Continue;
Israeli Air Attacks on Gaza Continue
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: December 19, 2007
JERUSALEM — Israel continued its air attacks Tuesday morning on Islamic Jihad, killing at least three militants in an airstrike as they left a mosque in the Jabalya refugee camp. Late Monday, two airstrikes killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander, his aide and four other militants, according to Islamic Jihad radio and the Israeli Army.
That brought the total killed since Monday night to at least 10, including a Hamas militant killed in a separate attack on a security post in southern Gaza after mortar shells were fired toward the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, the Israeli Army said.
The senior commander who was killed on Monday night, Majed al-Harazin, who was around 40, was one of the most important Islamic Jihad military commanders in Gaza, and Israel had tried to kill him three times before, according to Islamic Jihad radio, Al Quds.
Two other Islamic Jihad militants died with him in the car, including his senior lieutenant, Jihad Daher. Six passers-by, including three children, were wounded by shrapnel, according to Palestinian medics in Gaza. The car appeared to have been filled with explosives when it was hit by an Israeli rocket.
The Israeli Army said that Mr. Harazin, wanted for almost a decade, was in charge of squads firing rockets into Israel, and that he was specifically targeted based on real-time intelligence.
Spokesmen for Islamic Jihad vowed vengeance on Israel for the killings, and 3,000 armed militants carrying the black flags of Islamic Jihad assembled in front of the Gaza hospital where Mr. Harazin’s body was taken. “We vow that the assassination will unleash a wave of martyr operations,” the group said in a statement.
The Israeli deputy defense minister, Matan Vilnai, told Army Radio Tuesday, “I’m very pleased with our achievements last night.”
Haim Ramon, a deputy prime minister, said: “The terrorists must feel sufficiently in danger as this will allow us to reduce an important part of the rocket fire. When we eliminate a senior official who was at the head of a group firing rockets, this damages the capacity of the targeted organization.”
Islamic Jihad has been responsible for most of the rockets that have been fired from Gaza toward Israel, and the Israeli cabinet has been again under increasing pressure to launch a major ground operation in the territory to try to stops the firing of rockets and shorter-range mortars.
According to the Israeli police, which counts only ordnance that lands inside Israel, 664 rockets have hit this year through the end of November, killing two Israeli civilians and wounding 122. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there were 836 rockets that landed in 2006, compared with 312 in 2005. Since the rocket firing began from Gaza in 2001, the police said, 13 Israelis have been killed and 307 injured by shrapnel, with many more suffering from shock and trauma.
Only about half the rockets fired toward Israel land there, Mr. Rosenfeld said; the rest land inside Gaza.
Islamic Jihad threatened retaliation Monday night in a statement on Al Quds radio. An Islamic Jihad military spokesman, Khaled al-Batsch, said, “This strong Israeli strike will not go unpunished.”
Another Islamic Jihad spokesman, who called himself Abu Hamza, said, “The blood of our comrades will be the fuel for the rockets that will bring death and destruction to the Zionists.”
Hundreds of Islamic Jihad gunmen gathered in the streets after the attack Monday night and fired their guns into the air, and instructions were passed to stay out of vehicles, turn off their mobile phones and remove their batteries, to try to prevent Israeli electronic tracking.
On Tuesday morning, the Israeli army said, five rockets and several mortar shells were fired at Israel, but there were no casualties.
The strike on Tuesday morning hit the Islamic Jihad militants as they left the mosque in Jabalya camp after morning prayers. Three more were killed in a second strike Monday night on another car in Gaza City.
The Hamas faction, which effectively runs Gaza after routing the rival Fatah movement in June, will also be under pressure to respond to the killing of Mr. Harazin and the other Islamic Jihad gunmen. During Hamas’s huge rally on Saturday celebrating its 20th anniversary, the leader of the Islamic Jihad political wing was a featured speaker.
A reputable Palestinian poll released Monday showed that Hamas’s support has remained stable since a similar poll in September, before Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, attended an international conference in Annapolis, Md., organized to restart peace negotiations.
The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, showed that Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction would still defeat Hamas in legislative elections, by 49 to 31 percent.
“The stabilization of Hamas’s popularity reflects an almost total lack of confidence in the peace process unleashed by the Annapolis meeting,” said poll organizers, noting that Hamas had recovered much of its popularity after taking over Gaza in June.
Some 1,270 adults were interviewed throughout the West Bank and Gaza for the poll, which had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. |
