The IDF established three small new outposts in the vicinity of the murderous shooting attack on Assaf Hershkovitz, between Ofrah and the T-junction leading to Beit El. At least one of them will also be manned by local residents, beginning tomorrow. The army is preventing Arab cars from traveling on this highway, from Adam, just northeast of Jerusalem, to Wadi Haramiya, about five kilometers south of Shilo.
Using tanks and bulldozers early yesterday morning, the IDF destroyed about ten buildings and houses in the south-Gaza city of Rafiach; the structures had been used by terrorists for shooting attacks at Israelis. Most of Rafiach, halfway inside the Palestinian autonomy and half-Egyptian, has not had electricity for the past day; the PA claims that the Israeli offensive knocked out the main local power station. The area has been the site of intensive warfare against Israel of late, and is also believed to be a central PA smuggling point for weapons and ammunition from Egypt. The U.S. State Department condemned both the Israeli self-defense and the Palestinian attacks.