I'm alive. Have a terrible cold but not bad enough to stay home from teaching. I might duck out early. I don't really want to make this a daily news report, but "Ha'aretz.com" says it all so clearly.
Another night, another rock'n rollin collection of windows on the kibbutz. The booms happen infrequently but when they do, we, who sit in the Kibbutz Dining Room, look at one another and say: Sound Barrier? One of Israel's 'noisy' bombs? (a bomb whose bark is far worse than its bite) A qassam? (Palestinian home-made bomb)
In any case, here's the lowdown.
Link:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/629840.html
This photo was released Tuesday by Hamas. The militant group claims it shows Israeli businessman Sasson Nuriel, who was kidnapped and shot. (AP)
Last update - 05:23 28/09/2005
IAF strikes Gaza; W. Bank Hamas planning atacks
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
Israel Air Forces aircrafts fired a number of missiles at targets in Gaza City early Wednesday, knocking out power and plunging the city into darkness. No injuries were immediately reported.
On Tuesday, security forces said cells of the militant group Hamas were still planning attacks on Israel, despite the organizations' announcement that it would stop firing at southern towns.
Missiles landed in at least three locations. One air strike hit a two-story building used by the ruling Fatah party in Gaza City. The offices provide tutoring lessons to school children, and cash and food assistance to families in Tufah. The attack left a big hole in a wall of the building, smashed windows and destroyed an electrical transformer. Windows on several nearby houses were broken, and a car was damaged by flying debris.
Ambulances raced to the scene minutes after the blast, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries, Palesetinian witnesses said.
Missiles also landed in the Bureij refugee camp, just south of the city.
Minutes later, an aircraft attacked a building belonging the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group, in Bureij, and fired missiles into central Gaza City. The PFLP office suffered heavy damage.
The army said it was attacking offices used for terrorist activity. Israel has carried out a series of air strikes in recent days aimed at Islamic militant targets.
An hour later, another missile was fired in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday. The army said the air strike in Beit Hanun targeted a road leading to an area used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets.
West Bank Hamas plans new attacks in spite of 'lull'
Certain Hamas cells in the West Bank have resumed trying to carry out attacks against Israeli targets, even though the organization's leadership remains officially committed to the "lull" in the violence, defense officials said on Tuesday.
The officials said that at least two Hamas networks, in Ramallah and Hebron, have resumed planning attacks. This assessment is based on intelligence information, and not only on the recent kidnap and murder of Jerusalem resident Sasson Nuriel.
On Tuesday, Hamas claimed responsibility for killing Nuriel, who was kidnapped a week ago but whose body was discovered near Ramallah only on Monday. The organization released a videotape of Nuriel in captivity apparently made shortly before his murder. In the tape, Nuriel appears with his face covered and his hands bound, and he urges the government, in Arabic, at his captors' demand, to release all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
In its statement, Hamas said it kidnapped Nuriel in order to exchange him for Palestinians held by Israel, but the army's massive arrest operation in the West Bank this week compelled it to kill Nuriel instead. Hamas also threatened to kidnap additional Israelis, warning: "The operation is just beginning." The army said it takes this threat seriously and reiterated that Israelis are forbidden to enter areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas developed considerable expertise in kidnapping during the 1990s, kidnapping at least 10 soldiers between 1989 and 1996, at which point it switched its focus to suicide bombings. Moreover, Hamas operatives believe that even if the Palestinian public is tired of terror attacks in general, no Palestinian will oppose a kidnapping aimed at securing prisoner releases, along the lines of Hezbollah's swap of a kidnapped Israeli for 400 prisoners held by Israel in January 2004.
Also on Tuesday, the Shin Bet security service and the police revealed that a month ago they arrested Yakub Abu Assab, a senior Hamas operative who lives in East Jerusalem. According to the Shin Bet, he confessed under interrogation to having received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hamas operatives in Saudi Arabia and transferred it to Hamas cells in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. He also transmitted orders from Hamas leaders overseas to West Bank operatives.
IDF raids Hamas, Islamic Jihad offices in Tul Karm, Qalqilyah
IDF troops swept into two West Bank towns before dawn on Wednesday in a raid on offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, witnesses said.
The IDF had no immediate comment on the raids.
Witnesses said 15 army vehicles had stopped outside offices of both militant groups in the central West Bank town of Tul Karm where troops launched searches and confiscated equipment.
More than two dozen other army vehicles raided the offices of Islamic charities suspected of aiding Hamas in the town of Qalqilyah, south of Tul Karm, witnesses said.
Livni calls off meeting with PA prisoner affairs min.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni called off a Wednesday meeting with Palestinian minister for Prisoner Affairs Sufyan Abu Zaydeh as a response to the footage of the kidnapping, Israel Radio said.
The ministers were set to discuss prisoner release, but Livni said that it must be made clear to the Palestinians that they cannot use violence and kidnapping to achieve such a deal.