The attacks by Arab terrorists once plagued Jewish communities in the Gaza region and then rained on the Negev town of Sderot after the Knesset passed the expulsion plan. After the withdrawal of the IDF from the region, the rockets penetrated deeper into Israel, hitting industrial areas in southern Ashkelon. A power station, oil pipeline and naval installations are located in Ashkelon.
In addition, rockets struck two nearby army bases. Five soldiers were lightly injured in one of the explosions last week on the Zikim army base.
To help protect soldiers, the IDF began transporting hundreds of concrete walls to the base just south of Ashkelon as a measure of fortification.
Military officials have drawn up plans to monitor Gaza from the air and sea with balloons and drones to halt Kassam rocket attacks, which Sharon said would be stopped after the expulsion.
The Kassam rocket attack on Thursday which injured five soldiers intensified pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose popularity in the pre-election polls is threatened by rockets that have reached southern Ashkelon. He promised last summer that the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza region and the accompanying withdrawal of all Israeli military forces would make it easier for Israel to stop Arab terrorists from operating there.
After the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to halt, and sometimes abetted, Arab terrorists to launch Kassam rocket attacks, even during the expulsion, the Prime Minister told the Cabinet on September 25, "I instructed that there are no restrictions on the use of any measures in order to strike at the terrorists.... The instructions are unequivocal. This phenomenon must be stopped. It cannot continue under any circumstances."
Since then, the government tried to combat the rocket and mortar shells with warnings to the PA, which a senior aide to Mofaz admitted to United Press International (UPI), has “lost control over Gaza.”
The IDF recently began aiming artillery fire on open fields used by terrorists to launch attacks, but the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot reported on Friday that the artillery has hit fields which terrorists have not used.
The government's new plan is to patrol the airspace over northern Gaza with helicopters and unmanned drones and to use balloons with electronic and photographic equipment.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's office has ordered a restriction of movement in northern Gaza, according to Reuters News Agency, but Assayed Shaban, commander of PA forces in the area, asserted, "We will not move one inch." The planned restricted zone will include 1.5 miles in northern Gaza and run along the northern and eastern edges of the region. Most of the area is uninhabited and includes the destroyed communities of three Jewish communities from which residents were expelled last August.
Kassam rockets hit army bases south of Ashkelon twice this past week, but the second one caused injuries and panic, "scaring girls who were just recruited and were undergoing basic training in another," UPI reported "Those attacks have already sent worried parents to the base's gate." The IDF said Saturday it will protect soldiers by reinforcing the base, where most of the soldiers live in tents. UPI noted that "following the Israeli withdrawal the militants were able to bring their weapons closer to Ashkelon."
Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim said that Israel might have to use artillery fire on populated areas if other measures do not stop the attacks.
Mofaz has rejected such a move as well as a land siege and power cuts, which were suggested by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval Shteinitz. "An absurd situation has been created where we provide them with electricity and they bomb the power station in Ashkelon," he said on Friday.
Human rights group have warned that cutting electricity is against international law.
Shteinitz spoke at a forum in Be'er Sheva, where Israel Our Home Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, said that Israel needs someone like former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani "who will maintain order and provide Israelis with security."
"We fire on sand while they fire on Ashkelon. If I was the prime minister I would not leave one Jihad or Hamas headquarters standing. But we're idiots, cheap, and nerds," he added.
In addition, rockets struck two nearby army bases. Five soldiers were lightly injured in one of the explosions last week on the Zikim army base.
To help protect soldiers, the IDF began transporting hundreds of concrete walls to the base just south of Ashkelon as a measure of fortification.
Military officials have drawn up plans to monitor Gaza from the air and sea with balloons and drones to halt Kassam rocket attacks, which Sharon said would be stopped after the expulsion.
The Kassam rocket attack on Thursday which injured five soldiers intensified pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whose popularity in the pre-election polls is threatened by rockets that have reached southern Ashkelon. He promised last summer that the expulsion of Jews from the Gaza region and the accompanying withdrawal of all Israeli military forces would make it easier for Israel to stop Arab terrorists from operating there.
After the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed to halt, and sometimes abetted, Arab terrorists to launch Kassam rocket attacks, even during the expulsion, the Prime Minister told the Cabinet on September 25, "I instructed that there are no restrictions on the use of any measures in order to strike at the terrorists.... The instructions are unequivocal. This phenomenon must be stopped. It cannot continue under any circumstances."
Since then, the government tried to combat the rocket and mortar shells with warnings to the PA, which a senior aide to Mofaz admitted to United Press International (UPI), has “lost control over Gaza.”
The IDF recently began aiming artillery fire on open fields used by terrorists to launch attacks, but the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot reported on Friday that the artillery has hit fields which terrorists have not used.
The government's new plan is to patrol the airspace over northern Gaza with helicopters and unmanned drones and to use balloons with electronic and photographic equipment.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz's office has ordered a restriction of movement in northern Gaza, according to Reuters News Agency, but Assayed Shaban, commander of PA forces in the area, asserted, "We will not move one inch." The planned restricted zone will include 1.5 miles in northern Gaza and run along the northern and eastern edges of the region. Most of the area is uninhabited and includes the destroyed communities of three Jewish communities from which residents were expelled last August.
Kassam rockets hit army bases south of Ashkelon twice this past week, but the second one caused injuries and panic, "scaring girls who were just recruited and were undergoing basic training in another," UPI reported "Those attacks have already sent worried parents to the base's gate." The IDF said Saturday it will protect soldiers by reinforcing the base, where most of the soldiers live in tents. UPI noted that "following the Israeli withdrawal the militants were able to bring their weapons closer to Ashkelon."
Deputy Defense Minister Ze'ev Boim said that Israel might have to use artillery fire on populated areas if other measures do not stop the attacks.
Mofaz has rejected such a move as well as a land siege and power cuts, which were suggested by Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Yuval Shteinitz. "An absurd situation has been created where we provide them with electricity and they bomb the power station in Ashkelon," he said on Friday.
Human rights group have warned that cutting electricity is against international law.
Shteinitz spoke at a forum in Be'er Sheva, where Israel Our Home Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, said that Israel needs someone like former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani "who will maintain order and provide Israelis with security."
"We fire on sand while they fire on Ashkelon. If I was the prime minister I would not leave one Jihad or Hamas headquarters standing. But we're idiots, cheap, and nerds," he added.