By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jun 08, 2005
Defense officials Wednesday urged the government to allow them to deal a ?crushing blow? to the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza after a barrage of mortar shells and Kassam rockets killed three people and wounded eight others there.
A Chinese and two Palestinian Arab laborers were killed and five others were wounded when mortars slammed into the hothouses of the southern Gaza Jewish community of Ganei Tal Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, four Kassam rockets hit the Negev town of Sderot, punching a hole through the roof of one family's apartment. Three people, including a six-year-old girl, were treated for hysteria.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz convened an emergency meeting of security officials to discuss Israel's response.
The final decision, backed by new IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Dan Halutz, was to exercise restraint and allow PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas more time to honor his commitments to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.
However, ?at a certain point our patience will run out,? Halutz warned.
Army Radio reported Wednesday morning that several unnamed army officials were lobbying the government to realize Abbas was never going to eliminate the threat of anti-Jewish terror, and to unleash the IDF on Hamas.
Vice Premier Shimon Peres, Israel's chief proponent of appeasing ?Palestinian? terror, rejected the notion that the IDF was capable of dealing a crippling blow to Hamas.
?If it were possible to deliver one blow like this and be done with it, we would have done so long ago,? Ha'aretz quoted Peres as saying.
Health Minister Danny Naveh said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to put its plans to withdraw from Gaza and northern Samaria on hold in light of the increasing against Jews in those areas.
?If they fire on Sderot before Israel pulls out of Gaza, this only lends weight to the assessment on the terrorism expected to stem friom Gaza if Israel withdraws from there,? Naveh told Israel Radio. ?Even those who support the disengagement cannot continue to support a situation in which [terrorists] fire on Israelis and receive a prize for it.?
Sharon has repeatedly vowed Israel would not withdraw from Gaza or Samaria while under fire from ?Palestinian? forces.
It would not be the first promise Sharon has broken in connection with his ?disengagement? plan.