[Ha'aretz] Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Yuval Azoulay - Palestinians said they believe the escalation in rocket fire is part of a new Hamas policy aimed at forcing Israel into a ceasefire. Since Tuesday, Palestinians have fired more than 130 rockets and dozens of mortar shells at Israel. Hamas was responsible for most of Thursday's launches, and senior IDF officers believe that unless the situation calms down soon, Israel will have to further escalate its military operations. Hamas has upgraded its launching capabilities: Some of the rockets that hit Israel this week were fired by remote control from buried launchers, which makes it hard for Israeli forces to attack the launch crews. Hizbullah used this tactic extensively during the Second Lebanon War.
2008-01-18 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive