.bmp)
.bmp)
An improved Grad rocket landed on open ground in the Yoav Council region, location of the towns of Beersheba, Kiryat Malachi, Ofakim and Netivot as well as Kiryat Gat, the only town not targeted by a Hamas rocket so far. But the Lachish region east of Kiryat Gat was.Gedera, some 35 km from the Gaza Strip, reported a hit later. On Day 5 of the Gaza conflict, Wednesday, Dec. 31, Hamas loosed a massive hail of rockets and missiles every few minutes. They claimed 9 Grad rockets had been fired ad distant communities. DEBKAfile's military sources attributed the clear signs of Hamas recovery to three causes:1. Heavy rain and mist over the region which limited visibility and inhibited Israeli air force action against missile sites in Gaza.
2. Hamas had restored its chain of command for organizing and directing missile squads and stepping the tempo of launches. Its leaders are still hiding underground.
3. By Tuesday, Hamas had managed to transport large quantities of missiles from underground caches to firing positions near the Israeli border.
Belatedly, by Tuesday night, the Israeli war command appreciated its error in omitting to launch the IDF ground operation Monday, Day 3 of the Gaza offensive. Instead of opening up then with a limited incursion that would evolve into a broad ground operation, Israeli leaders wasted precious time in futile discussions on international demands for a ceasefire, which had no chance of holding up. Defense minister Ehud Barak, instead of running the war, spent hours on the phone with French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, before he, prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni, finally agreed that the French 48-hour truce proposal was unrealistic.Now, Israeli tanks and armored forces will have to wait for the weather to clear while watching Hamas broaden its swathe of attacks.Wednesday, Hamas fired 60 missiles and rockets in two and-a-half hours, striking targets in an area that stretched from relatively near locations like Sderot, Shear Hanegev and Ashkelon, to the farther 40 km-extremity of Beersheba,Ashdod, Yavne, up to the outer limits of the Yoav Council and finally Gedera.DEBKAfile's military sources report that Hamas is suspected of having acquired rockets with a range of 50-55 km, bringing them ever closer to central Israel. They estimate that Hamas is holding this weapon in reserve for the potential Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip. It is also disclosed that the Israeli air force mounted its second attack on the Philadelphi border zone's smuggling tunnels Tuesday, Dec. 30, after learning that Hamas had repaired some of the 40 tunnels first bombed Sunday.
The Air Force has revised its estimate of the quantity of Hamas missile stocks destroyed down from 50 percent to 10-15 percent. This means that their remaining stock is more like 8,000 than 6,000, including at least 100 long-range extra-punch Grad rockets. They can therefore keep up a high level of firing for around 80 days.
As in the days of Noah...
