Dei'ah veDibur - Information & Insight
  

A Window into the Chareidi World

17 Adar I 5763 - February 19, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
NEWS

OPINION
& COMMENT

OBSERVATIONS

HOME
& FAMILY

IN-DEPTH
FEATURES

VAAD HORABBONIM HAOLAMI LEINYONEI GIYUR

TOPICS IN THE NEWS

HOMEPAGE

 

Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEWS
Very Violent Days: Israel attacks Hamas targets in Gaza
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

As part of the IDF's new offensive against the Hamas, elite troops raided a village south of Hebron overnight Tuesday, shooting dead Hamas terrorist Muhammad Muhr. The soldiers surrounded a house in which Muhr was hiding, calling on Muhr to surrender. When he refused, they opened fire on the house, killing him. His death brings to eight the number of Hamas terrorists killed in the past three days, however six of the deaths were apparently self-caused by a "work accident."

The IDF arrested 15 wanted Palestinians in the Gaza Strip overnight Tuesday, and an additional 12 in the West Bank - including three women from the Bethlehem area suspected of intending to carry out suicide attacks.

Israel has been targeting Hamas militants since Sunday. Israeli security services have received warnings of 46 planned terrorist attacks in the past several days. Still the IDF on Tuesday lifted a general closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip that had been in effect for more than a week, and allowed 12,000 Palestinians with entry permits into Israel to work.

Israel was very active on Monday on all fronts, though the most public were in Gaza as it responded to a huge Hamas bomb that killed four members of a tank crew. They were killed on Shabbos when a mine weighing more than 200 pounds exploded beneath their tank in northern Gaza. One of the dead was a student in a hesder yeshiva that has lost six talmidim in the course of the year, Hy"d.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. Israeli army officials believe the tank set off the mine when it deviated from the path being cleared by a bulldozer that was traveling ahead.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the army would deal a heavy blow to Hamas. The IDF dropped its self- imposed restraints before the American assault on Iraq and is moving vigorously against Hamas in Gaza, including the use of targeted killings, army sources said Monday.

On Monday, Israeli troops shot a Hamas leader, Riad Abu Zeid, in Gaza. He later died of his injuries. Soldiers set up a surprise roadblock and tried to pull Abu Zeid out of his vehicle. Abu-Zeid pulled out a weapon and was shot in the head by the troops. The Army said their intention had been to capture Abu-Zeid, not to kill him.

Abu Zeid was believed to have taken over from Mohammed Deif, who was seriously wounded in an Israeli military missile raid in the Gaza Strip several months ago. Zeid was also the assistant of Salah Shehadeh, head of the Izzadin Al Kassem Brigades of the Hamas in Gaza, who was killed in the summer by a one-ton bomb dropped on the building in which he was staying in Gaza.

Also on Monday, two Palestinians were killed and four others wounded in exchanges of fire that erupted during an Israeli military incursion into Gaza City to demolish the house of a Hamas terrorist believed to have been responsible for Saturday's attack on the Israeli tank. He was not home and remained at large. The house was located in a neighborhood where leaders of the Hamas live, Palestinian witnesses said, such as Abdel Azziz Rantisi and Ismail Haniyeh, who often speak for the Islamic group. They were apparently not military targets of the operation, but it is likely that the action near their homes is aimed at sending them a message as well. Sheik Ahmed Yassin lives in another part of the city.

Witnesses said that after surrounding the building, soldiers ordered everyone out and took the men away. Then soldiers sent dogs inside to see if anyone was still there. Before blowing up the building, the soldiers told residents of nearby houses to evacuate them and to leave the windows open, to minimize damage from the shock of the explosion.

Israel has been blowing up the houses for several months as a deterrent measure. Human rights groups charge that innocent relatives are made to suffer, but the Israelis believe that it gives militants second thoughts about carrying out attacks. Several cases were reported in which family members stopped bombers from carrying out attacks, fearing that their homes would later be destroyed.

Six Hamas members, some of them senior terrorists, were killed Sunday in an explosion in Gaza City. Hamas at first blamed an Israeli attack, but later said that the six were inspecting a small remote-control glider which the group said it obtained for use in new "operations." They still blamed Israel, but Israeli sources said the blast was probably a "work accident" caused when the bombs went off accidentally. Such incidents are fairly common in Gaza, as the militants have no more respect for their own lives than for the lives of their intended victims.

Israeli security officials noted some efforts by the Palestinian Authority to prevent Hamas rocket attacks at Israeli targets from northern Gaza. On Monday, Palestinian Authority security officials discovered several rocket launchers in Gaza near Israeli positions at Netzarim. Israel later authorized the Palestinians to go in and destroy the launchers.

Around the West Bank on Monday, troops arrested 26 Palestinian suspects and Palestinians wanted for investigation.

Despite the violence, there were signs that talks over a truce to end more than two years of violence might begin.

 

All material on this site is copyrighted and its use is restricted.
Click here for conditions of use.