Kaplanr
07-14-2005, 04:46 PM
Woman killed in rocket attack outside Gaza Strip
By MATTHEW GUTMAN, ARIEH O'SULLIVAN AND JPOST STAFF
Dana Galkovitch, 22, was killed and her boyfriend was moderately wounded in Thursday afternoon barrages inside and just outside of the Gaza Strip. Galkovitch was sitting on the porch around 5:45 p.m. with her boyfriend, Amir Ragolsky, when a mortar scored a direct hit above them, crashing through the tin roof of the Ragolsky's Netiv Ha'asara home and killing Dana. Amir was wounded in the attack.
According to sources in the community, the ambulances took a half hour to evacuate the couple. A total of four rockets hit the upscale community, located about a kilometer north of the Gaza Strip.
As soon as the rockets struck, Aviva Fold, a resident of Netiv Ha'asara, called the Ragolsky family's house to see if everyone was safe. Penina Ragolsky, Amir's mother, is the chairman of the local committee of the 650-person town.
Fold said Amir, 24, told her: "I think my girlfriend was killed." The funeral is set for Friday in Galkovitch's hometown kibbutz cemetary. Penina, whose house abuts the bungalow in which Amir lives, said that Galkovitch "was like family." "She was like a daughter to me," she said sobbing. She also referred to Galkovitch as a sweet girl who just celebrated her 22nd birthday. She mentioned that the victim, a resident of a nearby kibbutz, was a student of Communications at Sapir College in Sderot.
Another four rockets hit the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, near the Karni crossing, causing damage to structures. An IDF jeep was hit in the attack. Luckily, no one was in the vehicle at the time. The jeep, however, was completely destroyed. Three mortars were also fired at Netzarim, a Gaza settlement. One landed near a nursery school, and another near a playground. Two more mortars landed in Nissanit in the Gaza Strip, where one person was taken in shock. In Elei Sinai, more firing was reported.
More than one terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks: Hamas and the al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigade. The attacks were supposedly in retaliation for the IDF's killing of an al-Aksa fugitive in Nablus on Thursday. Police went to the scenes to investigate. Residents were warned to remain in their homes. The rockets fired at Netiv Ha'asara came from the direction of Beit Hanoun, located inside the Gaza Strip. Dozens of rockets have been fired from Beit Hanoun on settlements inside the Gaza Strip and in the Western Negev in recent years.
Netiv Ha'asara is situated in the area that Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Muhammad Dahlan had asked Israel to include in PA jurisdiction by moving the Gaza Strip border two kilometers northward.
Dahlan made the request during discussions about establishing new entry points into Gaza. He claimed that the northern Gaza border had been moved two kilometers to the south in the past, and the PA was demanding that the border should be readjusted in line with the 1949 armistice lines.
But National Security Council chief Giora Eiland said that Israel made it 'clear' to the PA that the present border had been set in agreement with Egypt in 1950, and the same border was reconfirmed in 1994 under the Oslo Accords. He said that the Israel-Egypt protocol had recognized a land swap in which the border of the Gaza Strip had been moved south but had also moved to the east. Penina Ragolsky, who had investigated the statutory boundaries of her community and Gush Katif noted that Dahlan "is correct that the statutory border of Gaza is north of Netiv Ha'asara. However, 1949 the cease-fire agreement signed in Rhodes ceded this land to Israel."
Most of the people in the community were evacuated from Yamit in 1982.
Fold told The Jerusalem Post "We don't want to be evacuated again, and we don't want to be the Shaba Farms of the south." Residents recalled that some 700 rockets had pounded their community in recent years.
Earlier Thursday afternoon, IDF forces caught three Palestinians trying to infiltrate the Gaza security fence near the Karni crossing. On Thursday morning, a Kassam rocket landed near Sderot. Also on Thursday morning, a house in Gush Katif took a direct hit from mortar fire.
Israel Radio reported that no one was wounded in either incidents, but that the Gush Katif house sustained damage.
So when are we allowed to respond in kind? You realize that Israel will give the PA maybe a month to establish control over Gaza once we leave. Any attacks like this after that will probably result in either massive bombardment of the strip, or pushing of the Palestinians into Sinai.
By MATTHEW GUTMAN, ARIEH O'SULLIVAN AND JPOST STAFF
Dana Galkovitch, 22, was killed and her boyfriend was moderately wounded in Thursday afternoon barrages inside and just outside of the Gaza Strip. Galkovitch was sitting on the porch around 5:45 p.m. with her boyfriend, Amir Ragolsky, when a mortar scored a direct hit above them, crashing through the tin roof of the Ragolsky's Netiv Ha'asara home and killing Dana. Amir was wounded in the attack.
According to sources in the community, the ambulances took a half hour to evacuate the couple. A total of four rockets hit the upscale community, located about a kilometer north of the Gaza Strip.
As soon as the rockets struck, Aviva Fold, a resident of Netiv Ha'asara, called the Ragolsky family's house to see if everyone was safe. Penina Ragolsky, Amir's mother, is the chairman of the local committee of the 650-person town.
Fold said Amir, 24, told her: "I think my girlfriend was killed." The funeral is set for Friday in Galkovitch's hometown kibbutz cemetary. Penina, whose house abuts the bungalow in which Amir lives, said that Galkovitch "was like family." "She was like a daughter to me," she said sobbing. She also referred to Galkovitch as a sweet girl who just celebrated her 22nd birthday. She mentioned that the victim, a resident of a nearby kibbutz, was a student of Communications at Sapir College in Sderot.
Another four rockets hit the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, near the Karni crossing, causing damage to structures. An IDF jeep was hit in the attack. Luckily, no one was in the vehicle at the time. The jeep, however, was completely destroyed. Three mortars were also fired at Netzarim, a Gaza settlement. One landed near a nursery school, and another near a playground. Two more mortars landed in Nissanit in the Gaza Strip, where one person was taken in shock. In Elei Sinai, more firing was reported.
More than one terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the attacks: Hamas and the al-Aksa Martyrs' Brigade. The attacks were supposedly in retaliation for the IDF's killing of an al-Aksa fugitive in Nablus on Thursday. Police went to the scenes to investigate. Residents were warned to remain in their homes. The rockets fired at Netiv Ha'asara came from the direction of Beit Hanoun, located inside the Gaza Strip. Dozens of rockets have been fired from Beit Hanoun on settlements inside the Gaza Strip and in the Western Negev in recent years.
Netiv Ha'asara is situated in the area that Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister Muhammad Dahlan had asked Israel to include in PA jurisdiction by moving the Gaza Strip border two kilometers northward.
Dahlan made the request during discussions about establishing new entry points into Gaza. He claimed that the northern Gaza border had been moved two kilometers to the south in the past, and the PA was demanding that the border should be readjusted in line with the 1949 armistice lines.
But National Security Council chief Giora Eiland said that Israel made it 'clear' to the PA that the present border had been set in agreement with Egypt in 1950, and the same border was reconfirmed in 1994 under the Oslo Accords. He said that the Israel-Egypt protocol had recognized a land swap in which the border of the Gaza Strip had been moved south but had also moved to the east. Penina Ragolsky, who had investigated the statutory boundaries of her community and Gush Katif noted that Dahlan "is correct that the statutory border of Gaza is north of Netiv Ha'asara. However, 1949 the cease-fire agreement signed in Rhodes ceded this land to Israel."
Most of the people in the community were evacuated from Yamit in 1982.
Fold told The Jerusalem Post "We don't want to be evacuated again, and we don't want to be the Shaba Farms of the south." Residents recalled that some 700 rockets had pounded their community in recent years.
Earlier Thursday afternoon, IDF forces caught three Palestinians trying to infiltrate the Gaza security fence near the Karni crossing. On Thursday morning, a Kassam rocket landed near Sderot. Also on Thursday morning, a house in Gush Katif took a direct hit from mortar fire.
Israel Radio reported that no one was wounded in either incidents, but that the Gush Katif house sustained damage.
So when are we allowed to respond in kind? You realize that Israel will give the PA maybe a month to establish control over Gaza once we leave. Any attacks like this after that will probably result in either massive bombardment of the strip, or pushing of the Palestinians into Sinai.