Gaza rockets: Israelis demand end to militant attacks

An Israeli defense official said 'targeted assassinations' may be used to respond to the increase in attacks.

from the February 12, 2008 edition

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"There was a sense that this is a temporary issue, that eventually they would find a solution. Now there doesn't seem to be a solution," he says.

"The prospects of a reoccupation of Gaza have been rising steadily. But nobody wants to do it," Mr. Steinberg adds. "Hamas has been trying to suck Israel back in, in search of a political victory. No Israeli officials want to go back into Gaza … it's not a good solution."

Eli Moyal, mayor of Sderot, says the government can't do more of the same and expect results. Sitting in a protest tent in Jerusalem, erected in the shadow of Israel's Supreme Court, which ruled recently that the Israeli army could not completely turn off the taps on Gaza's electricity and water, Mr. Moyal makes an argument that is becoming more common: that Israel resume assassinating senior members of Hamas.

"The solution should be to make the Palestinians pay a price. Let's go after [Hamas leader] Ismail Haniyeh, his advisers, and deputies," says Moyal, a razor-thin man who says he keeps losing weight – and sleep – due to the daily Qassam rockets being lobbed at his city of 20,000.

On a recent day, he says, 24 fell on Sderot in a single hour, yet he didn't get a call or a visit from a single senior government or army official. And so he decided to pay them another visit – along with the rest of his city, and anyone else who would join.

Chanting "Olmert, resign," about 150 Sderot solidarity demonstrators blocked traffic in central Tel Aviv and on the Ayalon freeway before marching to the Defense Ministry with a police escort. In a mock simulation of a Qassam attack, demonstrators sprawled out on the ground as loudspeakers blared "Color Red," Sderot's alert for incoming missiles.

"There's one person who is denying Sderot's security and that is Ehud Olmert," yelled Alon Davidi, the protest leader, over a megaphone. "Tel Aviv, join with us together, and we'll wipe out the Qassams, because the government isn't able to,"

Holding up the rusted hulk of a Qassam rocket against a wall of border policeman, who blocked the entrance of the Israeli military's headquarters, Avi Schwartz said that the time had come for a wide-scale ground offensive after years of daily attacks on Sderot.

Though the strikes have been fatal in the past, Saturday's attack counted for many as "the straw that broke the camel's back."

"We're sick of it. We need to put an end to it," says Mr. Schwartz, who added that a rocket touched down about 150 feet away from his home a month ago. "It should be an open-ended operation to stop the Qassam fire. We have the strongest army in the Middle East."

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