IDF Official: Sderot is like Iraq and Afghanistan for the US

by Yaakov Katz
Jerusalem Post
December 16, 2008

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/498/idf-official-sderot-is-like-iraq-and-afghanistan

Following the resumption of Kassam rocket attacks on southern Israel on Wednesday, Washington issued a directive according to which any US government official that travels to Sderot and other Gaza belt communities must travel in an armored vehicle in order to protect them from Kassam rocket attacks.

Earlier Wednesday, a US Army colonel visited Sderot in an IDF armored vehicle.

An IDF official told Army Radio that according to US regulations, Sderot "is like Iraq and Afghanistan" for the Americans.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gaza terrorists fired four more Kassam rockets that hit open areas in the western Negev. It came after 10 rockets hit the region throughout Wednesday morning and early afternoon.

No casualties or damage were reported in the attacks.

On Tuesday, close to 10 rockets and mortar shells pounded the western Negev as Defense Minister Ehud Barak continued to call for an extension of a cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"We are not deterred from an operation in Gaza but we are also not rushing into one," Barak said Tuesday on the sidelines of a military exercise in the Golan Heights. "Calm will be met by calm but if there is no choice we will act when and where we see fit."

On Tuesday morning, Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the firing of four Kassam rockets that landed in open fields in the Eshkol Regional Council. Islamic Jihad said it fired the rockets in response to the death of 23-year-old Jihad Nawhda, who was shot and killed by IDF troops near Jenin.

Palestinian witnesses said Nawhda, 23, was leaving an Internet cafe near the town of Jenin when the Israeli troops arrived. The IDF said that Nawhda, who was the commander of Islamic Jihad in the Jenin area, was in the midst of planning a terror attack to be perpetrated in the coming weeks. The IDF said that soldiers opened fire at his legs as he tried evading capture and that he died of his wounds.

Later in the day, three more rockets were fired into Israel. One of them landed next to a soccer field, as a group of youngsters were practicing. One of the youth, suffering from shock, was evacuated by Maged David Adom medics. In response, the IDF bombed and destroyed the rocket launcher near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Related Topics:  Palestinian Rockets  |  Yaakov Katz receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free jewish policy center mailing list