Despite an announcement by the French President of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel Air Force aircraft pounded away at some 60 Hamas targets during the course of the night. A three-hour humanitarian ceasefire will be observed by the IDF in the afternoon.
Among Wednesday night’s IAF targets, chosen based on intelligence provided by the IDF and General Security Service, were the homes of Yasser Natat and Muhammad Sanuar. Sanuar was in charge of the rocket firing program in the Rafah area in southern Gaza, and Natat is the commander of the Hamas Khan Yunis Brigade.
Smuggling Tunnel Network Bombarded
A large part of the air onslaught was concentrated in Rafah, a city divided in half by the Egyptian-Gaza border, under which is found most of the arms-smuggling tunnel network that has supplied Hamas with arms, weapons and explosives for years.
The Arabs of Rafah were warned late Wednesday afternoon of the impending attack via leaflets dropped from Israeli planes. The residents in fact fled their homes, many of which concealed tunnel entrances, and dozens of buildings hiding the tunnels, and many tunnels themselves, were destroyed. Hundreds of tunnels still remain.
The arms-smuggling tunnels network between Egypt and Rafah has long been considered the main source of war materiel in Gaza. IDF officials generally agree that destroying the tunnels under the Philadelphi Route, between Gaza and Egypt, means cutting off Gaza terrorism's lifeline.
Yisrael Beiteinu party leader MK Avigdor Lieberman wrote this week, “No one will be a subcontractor for the State of Israel. We must control the border between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula completely, and then move to the next stage – knocking out the Hamas regime."
Even many Israelis who supported Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 opposed Israel’s cession of control of the Philadelphi Route.
The targets bombed last night included:
§ A mosque used as a weapons storage facility and as a meeting place for Hamas terror operatives * A Hamas police structure
§ Fifteen launching sites and underground launching pads used to fire mortar shells at IDF forces
§ Fifteen tunnels used by Hamas terrorists against IDF forces, some of which were located under houses
§ Ten weapons storage facilities
§ Several armed terrorists
As the IDF's Cast Lead anti-terror offensive nears the end of its second week, IDF infantry corps, armored corps, engineering corps, artillery corps and field intelligence corps forces continue to operate in large numbers throughout the Gaza Strip, with air and naval support of the Israel Air Force and the Israel Navy.
Humanitarian 3-Hour Ceasefire
The IDF announced that for the second day in a row, it would hold its fire for three hours this afternoon (Thursday) to allow Gazan civilians to replenish their supplies and to enable humanitarian missions. In addition, approximately 100 trucks will be transferred to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom and Erez Crossings, and some 500,000 liters of heavy duty diesel for the Gaza power station are scheduled to be conveyed to Gaza via the Nachal Oz fuel depot.