November 14, 2012 - Israel Kills the Military Commander of Hamas
Israel took action today against Hamas. They killed the military chief of Hamas and probably the heads of the various military divisions, in a well planned attack. The success of the attack was apparently a result of the three days of quiet, in which Israel did not respond in any way to the Hamas rocket attacks. This gave Ahmed Jabri and other Hamas military leaders a false sense of confidence. The strategy worked. As a result, Israel was able to kill the military leader of Hamas, the person responsible for the kidnaping of Gilad Shalit.
Beyond killing Jabri, the Israeli Air Force attacked sites holding Fajar rockets- (rockets that could reach the area of Tel Aviv.) The IDF was successful in destroying many, but not all of them. The big question remains how Hamas will respond. The army has warned all the residents of the South to stay home and prepare for an attack. At the moment, Hamas seems to be in shock and not ready to respond. The Israel Air Force is flying the air over Gaza ready to attack any available targets.
The Israeli attack has been surgical, (as much as possible. Despite 30 Israeli air attacks only 9 Gazans have been killed, and it looks like all but two were military men. Israel has brought large numbers of troops to the borders of Gaza, making it clear that Israel is willing, although reluctant, to enter Gaza with ground forces- if Hamas should fire on the center of the country.
Why Hamas continued to fire missiles in the last few days is unclear. They were warned by Egyptian intelligence that if they continued to launch missiles, Israel would respond strongly. Hamas seems to have thought that considering the situation in Egypt, Israel would not respond. This is not the first time they have miscalculated.
This is, of course, a rapidly changing story and the second part of the story has yet to be told. Since I posted the story 8 missiles have been fired at Beersheva one car was destroyed.
