By BPI.-info
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that Israel Defense Forces troops will complete taking over the area from which Qassam rockets were fired recently at Israel by the end of the day. Mofaz was referring to the area between Beit Hanoun and the Jabalya refugee camp, and said that troops would remain there for as long as necessary.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Tuesday that Israel Defense Forces troops will complete taking over the area from which Qassam rockets were fired recently at Israel by the end of the day. Mofaz was referring to the area between Beit Hanoun and the Jabalya refugee camp, and said that troops would remain there for as long as necessary.
„I am sure that after this takeover, the ability to launch Qassams will be diminished,” Mofaz said. „We will carry out further operations to damage the infrastructure for manufacturing the rockets and continue operations necessary to prevent the carrying out of the shootings,” he added. An Israeli man was moderately wounded Tuesday morning when two Qassam rockets fell on Sderot, one day after a young child and a 49-year-old man were killed by a similar attack on the western Negev town. Responding to the Monday rockets and to the Sunday bombing of an IDF post in the Gaza Strip, in which a soldier was killed, Israel sent troops, bulldozers and tanks into the northern Strip early Tuesday. The push followed a late Monday air strike on a Hamas-linked media center in Gaza. Troops surrounded the town of Beit Hanoun, barely two kilometers from Sderot. Israeli security officials said Monday, as troops amassed on the Gaza border, that the raid could lead to a prolonged operation in Gaza to prevent rocket fire on Israeli towns bordering the Strip. One of the Qassams in the shelling Tuesday landed in an industrial area on the outskirts of the town, the other in an open area outside the city. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Sycamore Ranch home is located just outside Sderot, and is believed to be the target of many of the salvos of Qassam missiles, which are unguided and may stray widely from their intended course. Shortly after midnight Monday, Israel Air Force helicopters fired three missiles into a 16-story building housing the Hamas-linked media center Al-Jeel, injuring two people, witnesses said. Minutes later, helicopters also fired a missile at a building housing a metal workshop in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. The high-rise targeted by the IAF on Monday night houses several media outlets, including the Arab TV satellite station Al-Jazeera. The army confirmed that the building had been targeted, saying in a statement the office was „a communication center which maintained constant contact with terrorists [and] through which Hamas claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks.” The foundry was said to be destroyed in the strike, with no reports of casualties. The IDF said Hamas had used the foundry to manufacture weapons.
(BPI information)
(BPI information)
