The Israeli government will cut electricity to certain areas of Gaza for two hours a day in response to a barrage of Kassam rockets Tuesday fired from the area. Sderot residents say it is too little, too late.
The blackouts will start out localized in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, opposite Sderot, from which most of the rockets are fired.
At least 22 Kassam rockets and 12 mortar shells were fired by Gaza terrorists toward Israeli towns and cities in the western Negev Tuesday. After the first barrage, the Air Force launched a strike on a rocket firing cell, killing senior terrorist Mubarak al-Hassanat, 37. Al-Hassanat served as deputy chief of the Hizbullah-associated Popular Resistance Committee in Gaza and in the Hamas Interior Ministry as well. He was formerly associated with Fatah, but took the position in Hamas’s government to help improve and oversee its development of an organized guerilla army.
One of the rockets landed near a strategic facility in the Ashkelon industrial area and another slammed into a residential building in Sderot. Several residents were lightly injured and others suffered from shock.
Six Kassam rockets were fired Monday as well.
The government announced that Defense Minister Ehud Barak will approve a list of sanctions against Gaza residents during a meeting with defense officials on Thrusday. Deputy Defense Minister MK Matan Vilnai (Labor) told Army Radio that the vast majority of electricity in Gaza is supplied by ten power lines from Israeli power stations. He ruled out cutting off all the power at once, but said he favored reducing it in stages. Hospitals will continue to receive power, “so as not to create a humanitarian crisis.”
The supply of gasoline to Gaza will also be “reduced slightly” he said, saying the goal is to remind residents that there are consequences for the rocket-fire.
Sderot residents lamented the government’s inaction on Army Radio Tuesday morning. “They stick concrete blocks and shelters all around and say ‘deal with it’ and that’s it – ‘there is no solution’ they tell us,” a local woman said.
"This decision is characteristic of this nihilistic government, it pains me to say," Sderot resident Eliyahu Cohen told Arutz-7 Wednesday morning. "They refuse to deal with the problem at its root. [The decision to cut electricity for two hours] was merely made to satisfy their own consciences. For residents of Sderot, who suffer every day from Kassam rocket attacks - it is yet another insult. The siren goes off and nobody is hit and the government says nothing happened, but it is impossible for us to get used to, and it traumatizes each day anew."
Former Chief of Staff Says Business Interests Preventing Gaza Assault
According to an in-depth report published by former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe (Boogie) Ya’alon, the Olmert government is refraining from carrying out the necessary counter-terror operations in Gaza due to commercial ties and business concerns.
Ya’alon writes in the report, published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, that the “master plan” for a Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority entails Israel purchasing 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that British Energy discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast. “The market value of the gas has been estimated at $4 billion. Therefore, sale of the gas to Israel would mean a billion-dollar windfall for the PA and, potentially, for the Palestinian people,” Ya’alon writes.
“Unfortunately, British assessments, including those of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, that Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state, are misguided. Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds would likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel.
The former Chief of Staff's most damning claim: “For Israel, the need for BG's gas may have already taken a toll. It is possible that the prospect of an Israeli gas purchase may have played a role in influencing the Olmert cabinet to avoid ordering a major IDF ground operation in Gaza, despite at least 1,000 rocket and mortar attacks against southern Israel since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007…Israel's funneling a billion dollars into local or international bank accounts on behalf of the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel's bankrolling terror against itself. Therefore, an urgent review is required of the far-reaching security implications of an Israeli decision to purchase Gaza gas.”