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Israel Sharpens Response to Palestinian Rocket Fire

(Ynet News) Ron Ben-Yishai - The preventive attack launched on Sunday in Gaza against an Islamic Jihad terrorist is a move up the scale of Israel's response ladder. When launchings from Gaza are being carried out once a day on average, Israel decided to move to preventive targeted killings. This means that until stability prevails, the IDF will use every operational opportunity to execute preventive attacks. Since Hamas has, in the last two years, lost nearly all of its patrons, funders, and donors, Israel is the one keeping Hamas in power, out of cold calculation. The alternatives are the Salafis, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad which takes its orders from Iran, and even Fatah sects in Gaza that are far more extreme than Hamas. Moreover, the bottom ranks of Palestinian Islamic Jihad have recently begun operating of their own accord, challenging not only the Hamas regime but their own leadership. A similar phenomenon is occurring in the West Bank, where Fatah operatives in several refugee camps have recently been disregarding orders from the Palestinian Authority at an increasing rate, even to the extent of exchanging gunfire with PA security forces.
2014-01-21 00:00:00
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