[Ha'aretz] Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel - Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin, director of IDF Military Intelligence, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday that Hamas has accumulated an arsenal of rockets slightly larger than the arsenal it possessed before last winter's fighting. Hamas has used the lull in fighting with Israel to not only restore, but improve its capabilities. Still, and similar to Hizbullah, restoring the arsenal hardly testifies to restoring motivation to confront Israel militarily. Hamas is in no hurry for a confrontation. Gaza has not yet recovered from the devastation of the Gaza operation, and Hamas knows it would pay in heavy casualties if the conflict reignites. In the meantime, Israel is improving its anti-missile defense systems. The first battery of interceptor missiles from Iron Dome, Israel's answer to Katyusha and Kassam rockets, should be deployed in the second half of 2010.
2009-11-04 06:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive