IDF Military Intelligence chief: Tel-Aviv within range of Gaza rockets

[GiladS]

MI chief: TA area now under threat of rocket attack from Gaza

Terror organizations in the Gaza Strip have significantly improved their ability to attack Israeli population centers, according to a Tuesday assessment by Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin.


In recent days, several successful tests of Iranian-made rockets have been carried out, he said, adding that the rockets have a range of up to 60 kilometers.

As a result, the Tel Aviv area is under threat of rocket fire from the Strip.
During Operation Cast Lead last winter, Grad-type rockets, Kassam rockets, and mortar shells were fired into Israeli territory, with projectiles hitting Beersheba, some 40 kilometers from the Strip.

Though rocket fire from the Strip has decreased since the three-week offensive, weapons are continually smuggled through tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt.
AP contributed to this report

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[OrangeWolf]

Am I the symbol of everything evil if I say a rocket or two on Tel Aviv will make a lot of indifferent Israelis wake up to realize better what's happening to their countrymen in other places? Of all the great people I met in that city, the greatest possible woozy ultra-leftist douchebags I met there too.

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by OrangeWolf

Am I the symbol of everything evil if I say a rocket or two on Tel Aviv will make a lot of indifferent Israelis wake up to realize better what's happening to their countrymen in other places?

That's an opinion shared by a lot of Israelis.

[Korath]

There is an alternative interpretation, as usually. When all Israelis are under missile attack following recurrent, successful military operations against Gaza, or whoever else fires the s!t, maybe someone will think about limitations of military solutions? Choose the interpretation that suits you the best.

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by Korath

There is an alternative interpretation, as usually. When all Israelis are under missile attack following recurrent, successful military operations against Gaza, or whoever else fires the s!t, maybe someone will think about limitations of military solutions? Choose the interpretation that suits you the best.

There's only one interpertation in my mind.

Once rockets start falling in central Israel, it will enter the Gaza Strip and stay.

[Redox]

Originally Posted by GiladS

Once rockets start falling in central Israel, Israel will enter the Gaza Strip and stay.

But wouldn't that mean more dead Israelis (soldiers) as there would ever die from rocket attacks?

Although I surely understand the notion that one wants to strike back when attacked.

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by Redox

But wouldn't that mean more dead Israelis (soldiers) as there would ever die from rocket attacks?

Soldiers have always died and will continue to die in order to defend the lives of the civilians and their way of life.

That's why in this case the Israeli military is called the Israel Defense Forces and not the 'Soldiers Defense Forces'.

Although I surely understand the notion that one wants to strike back when attacked.

It's not a notion but a nescesty...

[dracon49]

He also said something very interesting...that they transfer it via Turkey also.

[GiladS]

The Tel Aviv area could become the newest target for rockets launched from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Tuesday morning during a briefing of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.


Yadlin said that the IDF had identified at least one test firing in which Hamas had successfully launched a rocket with a 60-kilometer range into the Mediterranean Sea.
He went on to say he is concerned that Hamas has smuggled in Fajr-style rockets, an Iranian-produced artillery rocket that was also used by Hizbullah during the Second Lebanon War. It was not clear whether he meant the Fajr 3, which has a maximum listed range of approximately 50 km or the Fajr 5, which can reach upwards of 70 kilometers.

The intelligence chief said that despite the increase in Hamas's capabilities, the recent summer was the quietest in dozens of years for four reasons: Israeli deterrence, aspirations regarding the Obama administration's diplomatic policy, the group's focus on force-building and because of internal struggles that have taken energy from the organizations. Hamas, he continued, does not want any conflict with Israel so that they can direct their energies toward strengthening their civil rule in Gaza, but is still continuing to smuggle weapons in through tunnels across Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Hamas, Yadlin warned, is not the only of Israel's enemies to be strengthening. He said that Iran is funding, training and smuggling weapons to Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas, and that Iranian weapons are passing through Turkey and Syria - which he described as a "factory and storehouse" for weapons - to the Lebanese guerrilla group.
Hizbullah, he continued, is still storing weapons south of the Litani River in violation of UN Resolution 1701.


Yadlin also commented on the recent revelation made in September by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Iran was building an additional nuclear enrichment facility in the Shi'a holy city of Qom.

That facility, Yadlin emphasized, is not intended for civilian purposes, and he added that the enrichment carried out at this newly-revealed second facility will aid Iran in shortening the amount of time that it will take to acquire the necessary amount of enriched uranium to produce nuclear weapons.

Also discussing Hamas on Tuesday, Minister-Without-Portfolio Bennie Begin said that the Islamist group was "in effect, an extension of Iran" and that Hizbullah was another such extension.

During an Army Radio interview on Tuesday, Begin said that when Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, "people assumed that the international community would not hold Israel accountable for what occurred there anymore." After the disengagement, he said, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip and began to fire rockets into Israeli territory.
Begin asserted that "although the cities of the South are no different from Tel Aviv," 60-kilometer missile ranges showed that Hamas was "continually striving" for greater military capabilities.

"As long as there is no comprehensive agreement concerning border crossings, the deterrence we achieved during Operation Cast Lead will grow weaker," he said.
During Operation Cast Lead last winter, Grad-type rockets, Kassam rockets, and mortar shells were fired into Israeli territory, with projectiles hitting Beersheba, some 40 kilometers from the Strip.

Though rocket fire from the Strip has decreased since the three-week offensive, weapons are continually smuggled through tunnels along the Philadelphi Corridor, on Gaza's southern border with Egypt.
AP contributed to this report

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

[NimDod]

Originally Posted by GiladS

Once rockets start falling in central Israel, it will enter the Gaza Strip and stay.

Rockets "fell" in Ashdod - isn't it considered 'in central Israel'? it's only 30 kilometers south to TelAviv...

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by NimDod

Rockets "fell" in Ashdod - isn't it considered 'in central Israel'? it's only 30kilometers away.

Central Israel as in the Gush Dan metropolitan area.

[GB_FXST]

Originally Posted by Korath

There is an alternative interpretation, as usually. When all Israelis are under missile attack following recurrent, successful military operations against Gaza, or whoever else fires the s!t, maybe someone will think about limitations of military solutions? Choose the interpretation that suits you the best.

Does Hamas offer Israel any alternative but a military response?

Their position on negotiation and compromise is quite clear.

Originally Posted by GiladS

There's only one interpertation in my mind.

Once rockets start falling in central Israel, it will enter the Gaza Strip and stay.

I do not see the IDF occupying Gaza again for any extended period of time.

However, if Hamas begins to target Israeli cities with such long range rockets, the objective of the inevitable Cast Lead II will likely be the total elimination of Hamas as a military force.

[zzez]

Another adventure of showering with babywipes coming to Gaza soon enough

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by GB_FXST

I do not see the IDF occupying Gaza again for any extended period of time.

The main reason the IDF's achievements in the Gaza Strip are so temporary is due to the weapons smuggling via the Sinai.

It isn't so far fetched that the IDF might possibly have to retake the Philadelphi Route.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphi_Route

[GiladS]

Originally Posted by zzez

Another adventure of showering with babywipes coming to Gaza soon enough

LOL

I'll most probably be a reservist when that happens, just another week to go!