A Daily Analysis
By Marc Schulman

August 21 , 2007 Israel Deploys New Tactics Around Gaza

It is the end of August and much of the world is on vacation, including much of Israel. Unfortunately today, in Sderot, a Qassam hit a nursery school that was still closed for summer vacation. The level of violence around Gaza has been increasing in the last few days; part of the reason is that Israel has successfully deployed new intelligence systems that allow an almost immediate response to rocket, mortar or even sniper fire.

In two incidents yesterday and last night it worked well. Today two Palestinian kids were killed when they were drawn to the launch site by the firing of the Qassam. Hamas has not fired any Qassams itself at civilian targets, leaving that for the Islamic Jihad. With the economic situation becoming ever more hopeless in Gaza, it may be in the Hamas' interest to try to redirect the anger towards Israel by creating a military confrontation.

Since Hamas has taken control, there have been 68 casualties in Gaza; only 5 were not armed terrorists.