TEL AVIV, Israel, May 17 (UPI) -- Israel Thursday launched airstrikes on Hamas militants and sent tanks into the northern tip of the Gaza Strip following continuous rocket attacks on its town of Sderot and neighboring communities.
The air attacks on Hamas headquarters, posts and vehicles, the tank movements and deployment of artillery near Gaza's border prove Israel has ended a months-long policy of limiting reactions to the continuous trickle of Palestinian rocket attacks. This does not mean Israel is seeking a large-scale confrontation.
The army spokesman noted that since Monday evening Palestinians have launched some 80 rockets. Almost all of them landed in Israel. No one was killed but people were wounded and dozens were treated for acute stress. At least 14 rockets hit Israel Thursday. One crashed into a classroom that was empty because studies have been suspended.
The Qassam attacks seemed to be a byproduct of the bloody battle over power, inside Gaza, between the Islamic Hamas and the nationalist Fatah. Hamas, which by and large adhered to last November's cease-fire agreement with Israel, openly violated it.
Hamas said the attacks marked the 59th anniversary of the Nakba, the "catastrophe" that befell the Palestinians when Israel was established. It was probably trying to demonstrate that despite the internal fighting it has not given up on its main goal of fighting Israel.
Israeli analysts suggested it was trying to provoke retaliation in order to get the warring factions to stop shooting one another and get them to unite against the Jewish state.
The Qassam attacks effectively compelled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to retaliate.
"Hamas are terrorists, have stayed terrorists," Olmert's media adviser Miri Eisin told United Press International. "Israel was restrained, trying to help the moderate Palestinians even though hundreds of Qassams were fired against us in the last six months alone. A country has to protect its citizens, its sovereignty."
Olmert's government has been sharply criticized for failing to adequately care for the residents of northern Israel who came under Hezbollah Katyusha attacks during last year's Second Lebanon War. Thursday it sent some 800 residents for a few days' rest and recreation. An Israeli-Russian millionaire rented hotel rooms for hundreds more.
Helicopter gunships hover nearby, occasionally shooting into rocket-launching areas. They did not stop the Qassam attacks but might have disrupted some launchings. The broader picture shows a dangerous situation developing in Gaza since the Second Lebanon War that demonstrated Hezbollah's achievements.
The head of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, said in March that Hamas was organizing its forces in four brigades with know-how "most likely from Iran but also from Syria." Guns and anti-tank rockets and tens of tons of explosives were being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is reportedly preparing roadside bombs, fortifications and tunnels. The buildup reminded Israelis of the work Hezbollah had done in southern Lebanon from 2000 to 2006. Israel did not intervene and then sustained a barrage of 4,000 rockets. Some Israelis therefore want to strike at Hamas, now, before its gets stronger.
On the other hand an invasion would cost many Israeli and Palestinian lives. Israel would have to police and care for a huge, crowded, impoverished population and fall into the very trap Hamas was setting up.
The ministers began considering their options last Sunday and are expected to continue next Sunday. Yediot Aharonot's defense analyst, Alex Fishman, said the presentations the ministers have received show Israel should not let Gaza become its main front, tying down a considerable part of its military forces.
Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are the main front and Hamas' role is to "draw Israel into the strip and exhaust it," Fishman wrote.
One of the reasons for the ground forces' shortcomings last year was that units and their commanders were so deeply involved in fighting the intifada, a low-intensity conflict, that they sacrificed preparations for an all-out war.
The deputy defense minister's spokesman, Benny Shahino, told UPI they realize a military operation would not solve the problem of the Qassams nor the arms smuggling. A solution requires economic and political measures as well and, "That is not on the agenda."
An operation in which Israel would kill 500 Palestinians and damage 5,000 structures would achieve nothing, he argued. Last year Israel killed 400 Palestinians, but the Qassams kept flying and the arms kept coming.
So at least for the time being Israel went for pinpoint airstrikes. At 2 p.m. it bombed a Hamas Executive Force base in Gaza, then struck a vehicle the army said was carrying Hamas terrorists. Al-Jazeera TV said the passengers were senior members of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing. Soon thereafter, aircraft struck a Hamas post in Gaza. At 7 p.m. it hit a squad that launched a Qassam and prepared to launch another. And at 9.30 p.m. it hit a militant who launched a rocket, the army spokesman said. Seven people were reportedly killed in these attacks.
"We will seek out the rocket launchers, those who launch the rockets, those who make the rockets, those who plan the attacks. We will not allow the terrorists to continue their acts, Eisin said.
A Fatah-Hamas cease-fire agreement has meanwhile lessened their clashes, but not completely. Three Palestinians were killed in Rafah when gunmen opened fire during the funeral of a Hamas militant, Ma'an news reported. TV footage showed mourners running for cover but Palestinian security sources told Ma'an that "large numbers of Hamas gunmen were shooting at the Preventive Security forces in the center of Rafah."
Hamas attacked also a National Security forces base and killed one of its men, Ma'an said.
Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouthi warned that a collapse of civil order in the Gaza Strip could spell the Palestinian Authority's breakdown.
