Poll: Half of Israelis say operation ended too soon since Palestinians violated ceasefire
(JNS.org) Israel ended Operation Pillar of Defense too soon, 49 percent of Israeli respondents said in a poll released by the Maagar Mohot research institute on Friday. Those respondents believed Israel should have continued the operation for as long as rockets were being fired into the Jewish state from Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Palestinian terrorists fired 20 rockets at Israel after the ceasefire took effect Wednesday night, Israel National News reported.
In the poll, 31 percent of Israelis supported Israel’s decision to halt the operation when it did; 20 percent had no opinion and 29 percent said Israel should have invaded Gaza with ground troops.
*
As Gaza celebrates ‘victory,’ Barak says Hamas delusional
(JNS.org) Defense Minister Ehud Barak dismissed the victory celebrations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Speaking on Israeli television, Barak said that the Hamas government was deceiving their populace with fabricated achievements.
“They [Hamas] are deceiving their own people. They are celebrating the downing of an F-16 [which did not happen] and rockets that supposedly exploded in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They know full well what has befallen them: The prime minister’s official residence is gone, their manufacturing infrastructure is gone, no heavy machinery, they now have less than 40 percent of the medium range rockets they once possessed, and a buried military chief,” Barak said, according to Israel Hayom.
With gunshots, sweets and cries of victory, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip poured into the streets to celebrate Wednesday’s cease-fire deal, which ended eight days of deadly fighting between Israel and Islamist terrorists.
After being stuck at home for days for fear of Israeli airstrikes, tens of thousands of Palestinians crowded into cars and doubled up on motorcycles, waving flags and chanting for Hamas.
The Egyptian-brokered cease-fire put an end to Israeli air raids, which bombed hundreds of Hamas targets, as well as to the firing of more than 2,000 rockets and mortar bombs by Hamas and other factions into Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Firing a deafening burst from his Kalashnikov rifle, one Gaza resident boasted, “(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu will mourn tonight, while the people of Gaza are steadfast in their resistance and have triumphed. Israel won’t think of challenging us like this ever again. We paid a dear price in the blood of our people for their aggression, but we made great gains and showed our strength.”
Members of Hamas’ top political echelons, also forced to seek shelter during the raids because Israel had them in its sights, joined eagerly in the grandstanding.
“The resistance achieved a historic victory against the occupation and laid the foundation for the battle of liberation for all our land and sacred sites,” said senior Hamas official Ahmed Bahar.
Referring to Israel’s assassination of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari on Nov. 14, Hamas activists shouted through loudspeakers of Gaza mosques: “Jabari won, alive and dead.”
Gaza’s revelers seemed less concerned with the details of the truce and whether they thought Israel would keep its part of the bargain than with achieving what they saw as a symbolic victory.
“Imagine, the rockets of our resistance hitting Tel Aviv, hitting them and making them afraid everywhere they were. Nobody thought we could strike at them like this,” said Saleh Abu Khaled, sitting on the stoop of his apartment, his children frolicking around him in their pajamas.
“It doesn’t matter if they violate the truce; we’re ready to fight them again tomorrow. But we hope they learned a lesson this time,” he said, grinning widely.
The agreement calls on Hamas and Israel to cease all forms of military activity, including Israel’s targeted killings of terrorists, and for an easing of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza.
Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, said: “We are satisfied and proud of this agreement and at the steadfastness of our people and their resistance.” Haniyeh said it was Egypt’s unwavering support and the Arab Spring that gave them the strength to emerge victorious. “Israel was defeated and now they know the rules have changed.”
*
Police say Israeli Arab planted bomb on Tel Aviv bus
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israeli-Arab from Taybeh and several other Palestinians from the West Bank were arrested on Wednesday for their alleged role in the Tel Aviv bus bombing that wounded 28 people on Wednesday afternoon. After a manhunt lasting several hours that caused major disruptions across the country, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) apprehended the suspects Wednesday night in what was a joint operation with the Israel Police and the IDF. The arrests were subject to a media gag order until Thursday night.
Law enforcement officials say the Taybeh man and his handlers were part of a terrorist cell with links to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In their preliminary interrogation, the suspects confessed, saying they chose the venue for the attack and prepared the cellphone-activated explosive device.
The Palestinians, who reside in the West Bank village of Beit Lakiya, apparently told the Taybeh man to use his employer’s car to drive to Tel Aviv, Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Thursday. The employer, an east Jerusalem Arab, was not aware of the plan to use his car to enable the attack, Rosenfeld said.
After boarding the bus and planting the bomb, the man, who police declined to identify, got off and called the Palestinians, who remotely detonated the explosive by calling the phone, Rosenfeld said. The suspected bomber, who is originally from the West Bank, received Israeli citizenship under the family reunification law. The cell leader apparently recruited the Taybeh man for the mission because his documentation allowed him unrestricted travel inside Israel. Shin Bet officials stressed Thursday that the investigation is ongoing and may result in additional arrests.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org