Hamas Ceases Mortar Shelling of Israeli Troops
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel's border with the Gaza Strip quieted down over the weekend, following a week of daily mortar shelling against IDF troops searching for attack tunnels.
Israeli pilots carried out two airstrikes on the Hamas terror infrastructure on Saturday in response to a mortar shell attack at the end of the week.
"Israel will continue to act as necessary to uncover and counter the threat of tunnels in the south," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting. "We will spare no resources and means in providing security to the residents of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip."
Netanyahu said Gaza-perimeter towns have flourished in the past two years, with many Israelis moving their families there, a trend the government is encouraging.
While Israel is not seeking an escalation at the border, Netanyahu said the government will do whatever is necessary to maintain security.
Meanwhile, Gaza-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh said his group is not seeking an escalation of the violence but neither would it tolerate a buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border.
The "buffer zone" he's referring to is 150 meters (yards) from the security barrier where IDF troops uncovered two tunnels approximately 28 meters below the surface.
Former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yossi Kuperwasser, who also served as head of the IDF's Intelligence and Research and Assessment Division, said Hamas wants to be better prepared to launch a new fight against Israel when it feel strong enough to make it happen.
"They don't consider this is the best time to do that," Kuperwasser told journalists by phone, saying its "driving force" is to wipe Israel off the map, something that's made clear by the way they educate their children.
Kuperwasser said finding two tunnels within a short time is a good indication that the new technology being developed to locate the tunnels shows a lot of promise, though there's more work to do. He also said that what Hamas refers to as its "military wing" is in actuality its "terror wing."
