Report: IAF bombardment of Gaza produces many casualties

This looks like "son of Lebanon 2006 returns." A guerilla movement cannot be defeated from the air. The remarkable thing was that in searching Google for news reports of the new incursion, one finds dozens of identical reports from previous years.

 

Last update - 11:55 27/12/2008       
Sources: Many casualties in IAF bombardment of Hamas targets in Gaza
By Haaretz Service and Reuters

 

Israel Air Force warplanes fired around 30 missiles at targets along the Gaza Strip's coast on Saturday, causing heavy damage, witnesses said.

 

A Reuters correspondent said Gaza City port and security installations of the Islamist Hamas group were badly damaged.

 

The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the attack, which followed a decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
 
Egypt has boosted the security along its border with Gaza, officials said Friday, in anticipation of an imminent Israel Defense Forces operation within the territory, fearing an Israeli incursion would result in a breach of the border.

 

In January, Hamas militants frustrated over the tightened Israeli closure of Gaza blew holes in the border partition, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to stream into Egypt unchecked for ten days and stock up on food and other goods made scarce by the blockade.

 

Egyptian officials told Israel Radio, however, that Egypt is pressing on with efforts to prevent the escalation of violence in the region. The officials said that representatives of Egyptian Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman have approached senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar in the Gaza Strip and presented him with Egypt's concerns.

 

Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired dozens of mortar shells from the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday and early morning Friday, as the IDF prepared for action.

 

The mortars damaged one building, but no one was hurt in any of the incidents.

 

Reportedly, a "limited operation" will begin within days that will combine an air attack with some ground operations against Hamas and other Gaza terror groups.

 

The cabinet has given the go-ahead for an operation of a few days' duration with clearly defined goals.