Rockets fly from evacuated territory as PM Olmert calls for West Bank withdrawal
Monday, June 5th, 2006It’s really great how evacuating all that territory helped Israeli security…NOT!! Sometimes I wonder if Olmert is really a pali terrorist in disguise.
JERUSALEM – Israel must stop the missiles fired regularly from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish communities “at any cost,” including possibly reoccupying parts of Gaza, Israel’s Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said at a cabinet meeting yesterday.
The statements come days after a series of missiles landed hundreds of feet from the home near Gaza of Israel’s defense minister and follow an Israeli Defense Forces anti-rocket operation last week conducted deep inside the Gaza Strip – reportedly the first such operation since Israel evacuated the territory nine months ago. Defense officials said more ground operations in Gaza will likely follow.
Critics of Israel’s Gaza withdrawal had warned the retreat would prompt an onslaught of terrorism requiring the IDF to re-enter the territory. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently planning a second, larger withdrawal from most of Judea and Samaria, mountainous terrain within rocket firing range of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the country’s international airport.
Dichter, a member of Olmert’s Kadima party and a vocal supporter of the Gaza withdrawal, demanded the IDF act quickly to halt the rocket fire.
“If need be, we can turn Beit Hanoun (a northern Gaza city routinely used by Palestinian terrorists to launch rockets) into a ghost town. We need to return the balance of deterrence.”
Olmert responded at the meeting, which was open to the media, by stating the Israeli army has been effective at stopping missiles launched from Gaza.
“All of the operations carried out recently in Gaza brought very good results. For that, the defense establishment – and the defense minister – deserve all our respect,” Olmert said.
Hours before the government meeting, a Qassam rocket scored a direct hit on a parking lot in Sderot, an Israeli city about five miles from Gaza, damaging a number of vehicles. No injuries were reported. A greenhouse in a town near Sderot was also damaged yesterday by a Qassam rocket.
Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip last August, more than 400 Qassam rockets have been fired at adjacent Jewish communities. More than 15 rockets were fired in the last week alone.
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