Israel Update for April 2008

Yet another major Palestinian terror attack was launched on April 19, this time against Israeli soldiers stationed at the Kerem Shalom border crossing into the Gaza Strip. While Palestinian gunmen hid nearby, suicide terrorists rammed several armored vehicles packed with explosives into the border fence, setting off powerful blasts that killed themselves and injured 13 IDF soldiers, one critically. Officials said Hamas had planned to kill most of the soldiers and then take captive any injured survivors. The border crossing, traversed by around 200 humanitarian aid trucks each week, is next to where IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted in 2006.

Full War on Hamas

Speaking to Kadima party activists several days after the two Israeli fuel workers were slaughtered, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed that his government is preparing to crush the Hamas movement: "I promise that our response to Hamas attacks will be such that Hamas will no longer be able to continue to take any action against the citizens of Israel."

The premier-who was the main Sharon government advocate for the controversial Israeli civilian and military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005-said he could not reveal specific details of the apparent major military operation being planned against the burgeoning Palestinian group, which violently seized control over the entire Gaza Strip from Fatah-linked Palestinian Authority security forces last June. However Olmert pledged that "What I am saying will obligate Israel to act, and I promise you that it will be properly implemented." Political analysts said that remark was an apparent allusion to the poorly planned and executed 2006 assault on Hizbullah militia forces in Lebanon.

Speaking the same day to his Labor party activists, Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed PM Olmert, saying "We will restore security to Sderot and other communities along the Gaza periphery."

Many analysts predict that the government is preparing to launch a massive operation that will rival the scope of the 34 day Second Lebanon War. They say that unless circumstances spiral out of control, such a conflict will undoubtedly not be initiated until after May's countrywide celebration of Israel's sixtieth birthday, when American President George W. Bush and other world leaders are scheduled to visit Israel. They anticipate that the planned operation to uproot Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip will feature more ground operations than the Lebanon conflict did, despite the likelihood the number of IDF casualties will match if not exceed the 119 soldiers killed by Hizbullah fighters.

Armed To The Teeth

Just how difficult a full-scale IDF operation against Hamas would probably turn out to be was underlined by a report issued on April 10 by an Israeli think tank. Put together by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, and based on data gathered by Israel's Shin Bet security agency, the report said the militant Muslim movement has managed to assemble a formidable Gaza Strip militia force of at least 20,000 armed men. Another 4,000 trained gunmen in the crowded coastal zone belong to other militant groups that would undoubtedly support Hamas fighters.

The ominous report said Hamas militiamen, many commanded by men trained in Iran and Syria, are divided into two main divisions. One of them, the Kassam Brigades, is made up of around 10,000 men. A brigade sub-division operates in the northern Gaza Strip just a few miles south of Ashkelon. Two others are stationed in Gaza City, where much of the fighting would be expected to take place given the Hamas inclination to use its own civilian population as human shields, as Hizbullah did in 2006. Another two sub-divisions are positioned in the south near the Sinai border towns of Rafah and Khan Yunis.

The other main armed division, also numbering some 10,000 men, is comprised of members of the Hamas Executive Force which replaced routed PA security personal on Gaza streets last June. The think tank report revealed that Hamas has even created a small coastal patrol made up of over 200 men equipped with several naval vessels.

The intelligence report said Hamas gets its weapons in three main ways-internal Gaza production, from Iran and Syria, and from international illicit arms dealers. It said the Islamic group has smuggled in from Egypt an unknown quantity of the same type of Iranian-built 122 millimeter Grad rockets fired upon Ashkelon in March, along with hundreds of mortar shells. Gaza factories constantly produce shorter range Kassam rockets, with hundred ready to be fired at any given time.

The report said Hamas also has several anti-aircraft missiles and an estimated 30 or so anti-aircraft machine guns. The radical group has also acquired dozens of deadly anti-tank rockets, including some Sagger missiles, and has produced thousands of rocket propelled grenades. It has also smuggled in advanced listening devices from Egypt, along with night vision equipment.

Peacemakers Or Warmongers?

Israeli officials were livid over former American President Jimmy Carter's meetings with senior Hamas officials in Cairo and Damascus during his April Middle East tour. Several Hamas leaders-members of a violent organization high up on the US government's terrorist list, which has murdered over 20 Americans in attacks this decade alone, along with hundreds of Israelis-actually publicly confirmed Israeli government contentions that they were simply exploiting the Carter visit to bolster their international standing.