More than 60 rockets and mortar shells were launched in the past week from the Gaza city targeted in the IDF counter-terror offensive, which was called Operation Purple Iron.
Seven Hamas terrorists have been killed in the operation, which included tanks and Israel Air Force aircraft. One of the terrorists was a Hamas commander, targeted with two missiles. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded during the operation by shrapnel from an anti-tank missile. They were evacuated to Be'er Sheva's Soroka Hospital.
This was the third IDF operation in Khan Yunis over the past week. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been accused of tying the IDF's hands, preventing it from combating the continued rocket and mortar shell attacks for political reasons.
Shortly after today's operation, a Kassam rocket was fired at the Jewish community of Tel Katif, lightly wounding a 20-year-old woman in her leg. Two Kassams also fell in an open area in Kibbutz Nachal Oz, located in the western Negev, within Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Residents of the beleaguered Gaza community Kfar Darom carried out a unique protest activity late this morning: They set out in a convoy of cars and encircled their own town. They wished to show what they say the IDF is not doing, namely, going out and fighting the terrorists who are firing the mortar shells and rockets. The local IDF commander arrived on the scene, and convinced them to return to the "safe" borders within their community.
The residents also expressed their outrage at the fact that army forces had identified a seven-member terrorist cell that fired a shell yesterday, yet did not fire at them for fear that Arab children in the vicinity might be hurt.
The shell actually wounded a woman in Kfar Darom; she was treated in a hospital for a shrapnel wound she suffered while tending to the children of the Cohen family. The three Cohen children, it will be recalled, each lost part of a leg or foot in the bus-bombing attack outside Kfar Darom four years ago.
Seven Hamas terrorists have been killed in the operation, which included tanks and Israel Air Force aircraft. One of the terrorists was a Hamas commander, targeted with two missiles. Two IDF soldiers were lightly wounded during the operation by shrapnel from an anti-tank missile. They were evacuated to Be'er Sheva's Soroka Hospital.
This was the third IDF operation in Khan Yunis over the past week. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been accused of tying the IDF's hands, preventing it from combating the continued rocket and mortar shell attacks for political reasons.
Shortly after today's operation, a Kassam rocket was fired at the Jewish community of Tel Katif, lightly wounding a 20-year-old woman in her leg. Two Kassams also fell in an open area in Kibbutz Nachal Oz, located in the western Negev, within Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Residents of the beleaguered Gaza community Kfar Darom carried out a unique protest activity late this morning: They set out in a convoy of cars and encircled their own town. They wished to show what they say the IDF is not doing, namely, going out and fighting the terrorists who are firing the mortar shells and rockets. The local IDF commander arrived on the scene, and convinced them to return to the "safe" borders within their community.
The residents also expressed their outrage at the fact that army forces had identified a seven-member terrorist cell that fired a shell yesterday, yet did not fire at them for fear that Arab children in the vicinity might be hurt.
The shell actually wounded a woman in Kfar Darom; she was treated in a hospital for a shrapnel wound she suffered while tending to the children of the Cohen family. The three Cohen children, it will be recalled, each lost part of a leg or foot in the bus-bombing attack outside Kfar Darom four years ago.