1. IDF RECOMMENDS: CONTINUE TO PRESS HAMAS.
Firing continues: Ashkelon home takes direct Katyusha hit. Approximately 40 Kassams fired at Sderot and area around Gaza Strip, seven people lightly wounded. Gaza operation: Eleven Palestinians killed by IDF fire yesterday and ten died of their wounds. 109 Palestinians killed since Wednesday. The diplomatic negotiations: Palestinian Authority freezes talks with Israel. Minister Ami Ayalon to call in Cabinet for negotiations with Hamas. The West Bank: 14-year-old youth killed by IDF fire in Hebron hills. Demonstrations held yesterday in Hebron area and in Jerusalem.
2. STOCK EXCHANGE DROPS BY MORE THAN 3%.
Fighting in south was secondary player: Collapse on Wall Street was more influential.
MAKOR RISHON-HATZOFEH
1. Dichter: ‘Treating residents of Ashkelon as disposable product’ – Barak:
„TIME HAS COME FOR DEEDS – HAMAS TO PAY THE PRICE.”
At reduced meeting in his bureau, DM said: „We uprooted Israelis from their homes only for quiet – Hamas is firing for no reason.” GOC Intelligence: „Iran waiting to see how conflict in Gaza Strip will go.”
2. CLOSING THE REACTOR.
Particle accelerator likely to replace Nahal Sorek reactor.
MA’ARIV
1. Next stage: Concentrating on air attacks.
WE HAVE NO HOME.
(…). Nine-year-old Naomi dragged her brothers and grandmother into REINFORCED ROOM. Seconds later, GRAD rocket smashed into their Ashkelon home. And in Gaza: 14 Palestinians killed.
YEDIOT AHRONOT
1. SENIOR IDF OFFICERS: OPERATION HAS EXHAUSTED ITSELF.
Despite in Gaza, 42 rockets launched yesterday – like before the action. First time – long-range rocket, identical to Hezbollah’s Iranian rockets, launched.
2. PREEMIES FROM GAZA: IN ASHKELON SHELTER.
Staff at Barzilai Hospital premature babies ward, which was moved to reinforced shelter, dedicatedly caring for premature twins from Beit Lahiya, from which the hospital is being fired at.
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SUMMARY OF EDITORIALS FROM THE HEBREW PRESS
All three papers discuss various aspects of the situation in the Gaza Strip and in the neighboring areas of southern Israel:
Ma’ariv says that whereas firing at northern Israel from southern Lebanon has been intermittent, the firing at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip has been continuous. The editors suggest that Hamas’s demands for both short and long-term ceasefires are far too one-sided and sweeping for Israel to accept. The paper cites Hamas’s extreme positions vis-à-vis Fatah and asserts that, „Whoever among us hopes that Abu Mazen would – under these conditions – be able to go towards any sort of compromise on the Palestinians’ basic positions, is dreaming.” The editors aver that, „What happens in Gaza is not just a local issue,” and add that, „The Arab-Islamic world is waiting to see if Hamas will succeed, how Israel will react and how the IDF will measure up.” Lastly, the paper questions the efficacy of the Iron Dome system.
Yediot Ahronot believes that, „We must threaten – and even plan for the possibility that we will be compelled to hit – the population in Gaza with a hard blow,” and argues that, „It will save blood.” The editors write that, „While Hamas does not aspire to a neighboring state alongside us but to a fighting Islamic state in our place, our ability to act to put down this abominable movement has suffered due to our harassment of its alternative. Justice is with us on the southern front and injustice is with us on the eastern front. Justice in the east requires the courage to make sweeping concessions. Justice in the south demands the courage to be brutal.”
Makor Rishon-Hatzofeh accuses the Government of, „conducting its affairs without a stable security policy,” and adds that, „This situation reminds us of the conduct of the Olmert Government during the Second Lebanon War.” The editors declare that, „The Olmert Government’s political leadership has failed,” and calls for its replacement by, „a better leadership that will see fit to ensure the peace and security of the residents of the south.”
BreuerPress
