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FULL ARTICLESThursday, August 28
Israel: Missile Attack on Ashkelon Crossed 'Red Line'
Palestinian terrorists fired four Kassam-2 missiles into Israel Thursday afternoon, one of which landed in the southern Israeli port city of Ashkelon. The IDF reported that no causalities were sustained in the attack.
This is the first time that Kassam missiles have landed as far north as Ashkelon, which has a population of 116,000. The missile landed near the Carlsberg brewery in the port city's industrial zone, and caused no damage.
Although the Kassam missiles are relatively crude, Israel sees them as a strategic threat. Thursday's Kassam attack was aimed at Ashkelon's electricity station.
The rockets were fired from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. Hamas terrorists use this area to fire Kassam rocjets and mortars at the northern Israeli town of Sderot, and also at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip.
IDF vehicles, including bulldozers entered the outskirts of Beit Hanoun Thursday evening and started clearing the land from which the Kassam missiles were fired, Palestinian witnesses and IDF officers said. The IDF force left the area after completing its mission. It is unclear as of yet if the IDF operation is the beginning of wider IDF action in the Gaza Strip. IDF units are ready for operations in the Gaza Strip, and are in the area in force, an army officer said on Channel 1.
In a press conference Thursday evening, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the missile attack on Ashkelon "a significant escalation". "I have instructed the minister of defence to
take all necessary steps to avoid such actions
in the future," said the Prime Minister."The Palestinian Authority and all of the terror organizations who were involved with the attack on Ashkelon today, have no understanding as to the extent of how the IDF will respond," a senior military source told The Jerusalem Post.
"No democratic country in the world would ignore a terror missile attack on one of its major cities. We will respond and when we do we expect to have the support of all countries who are engaged in a war against global terrorism which threatens innocent civilians," the source said.
The Prime Minister's Office echoed the reaction of the IDF.
"Israel will not ignore a rocket attack on one if its major cities," said former UN ambassador and advisor to the Prime Minister's office Dore Gold.
"The Palestinians have clearly upped the ante in this situation," said Gold.
This shows how they have exploited their self-declared truce" to increase the range of their weaponry, Gold added.
An Israeli military source said the missile that landed in Ashkelon had a range of 9km.
"We have seen a very alarming escalation in the last six days, with the firing of over 55 mortars and 14 Kassam rockets," he said.
"This was the deepest hit in the heart of Israel, and we are alarmed by this. We expect the Palestinian authority to take decisive and genuine action against terrorists firing at Israeli civilian targets on a daily basis," the military source added.
Palestinian police said they had chased the men who fired the missiles from the northern Gaza Strip and opened fire on them, but could not apprehend them.
Ashkelon mayor, Shabtai Tzur, said Thursday that he was concerned about the new threat from longer-rage Kassam rockets, but added that he trusted the Israeli army, "which will know how to stop missiles from being fired at Ashkelon." "I am convinced that today's events will not stop people from opening factories in the city's southern industrial zone," the mayor added.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired an improved version of the Kassam rocket toward Ashkelon last Sunday. It landed on an empty beach, causing no injuries and leaving only a small crater in the sand.
But it marked the first firing of the Kassam-2 since the ill-fated hudna (cease-fire) was declared seven weeks ago, and the first time a rocket almost reached Ashkelon. Hamas and other groups in the Gaza Strip used the period of the cease-fire to extend the range of their homemade Kassam rockets.
The IDF retaliated for the Kassam attack on Sunday with pinpoint helicopter missile strikes targeting key Hamas leaders.
The Sunday rocket strike came just hours after Palestinian security forces said they had begun arresting weapons smugglers in the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening, seizing weapons and detaining at least 15 suspects. They said they also sealed off two more tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
Israeli security officials dismissed the Palestinian raids as fiction and affirmed that Israel will continue acting against terrorists, a security source said.
By JOEL LEYDEN AND ARIEH O'SULLIVAN
Israel: missile attack on Ashkelon crossed 'red line'
Man Dies From Wounds Sustained in Ariel Attack 2 Weeks Ago
Amatzia Nitzonevich, 22, died from wounds he sustained in the terrorist attack in Ariel two weeks ago.
Nitzonevich was hospitalized in Petah Tikva's Beilinson hospital with very serious wounds all over his body, and especially his lungs.
Nisevitch's death brings the death toll for the Ariel attack to two, Erez Hershkovitz, 18, who had just completed his basic training in the IDF, was also killed in the attack.
Hamas took responsibility for the Ariel attack.
By THE JERUSALEM POST INTERNET STAFF
IAF Honors Auschwitz Victims With Flyover
Three F-15 fighter jets, some piloted by sons and grandsons of Holocaust survivors, take off Thursday for an historical booming fly past over the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
Proudly displaying the blue Star of David, the three jets, the most lethal aircraft in the IAF's arsenal, will swoop down low in next week's September skies and jet straight over the train platform where the Nazis held their infamous selections that sent hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths in gas chambers.
The feat will also demonstrate Israel's long-arm reach of its premier fighter jets which will fly the 1,600 nautical mile route.
"It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. I have dreamt of this for 15 years. It will be very moving for me," Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel told The Jerusalem Post.
Eshel, commander of the strategically crucial Tel Nof airbase.
Eshel will lead the fly past scheduled for September 4. While he exact time cannot be given for security purposes, Air Force officials said that it would take place "around midday," and noted that the event is open to all who may wish to visit the death camp on that day.
"We will fly past over Auschwitz and we will show the most powerful might of the IDF where the most awful tragedy happened to the Jewish people. This symbolizes so much where we came from and where we are going," said Eshel, whose mother's family was wiped out by the Nazis in Poland.
The idea for the fly past came about after the Polish air force invited the IAF to participate in their gala celebrations marking their 85th birthday. The IAF agreed and will be sending a large delegation and small fleet of aircraft to Poland next week. The IAF will be joining other air forces from around the world at the celebrations to be held at the Radom airbase some 250 kilometers from Warsaw. The trio of IAF F-15 jets will perform aero-acrobatics at the base.
Eshel said the invitation was the perfect time to stage the memorial fly past and asked the Poles what they thought of the idea. After initial foot dragging, they agreed and even gave enormous logistical support such as aerial photos of the camps and clear flight paths.
On the day of the event, the three war jets will fly toward the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. They will slow to some 300 knots and fly as low as possible along the railroad tracks leading into the camp and crematoriums and then peel away.
"We will be flying slow and low so that everyone on the ground will be able to clearly see the IAF markings and the blue Star of David," said navigator Capt. Shai who helped planned the event and will also participate in the fly past.
This is not the first time the Israeli army will have come to the infamous concentration camp. In 1992, then chief of general staff Lt.-Gen. Ehud Barak led a delegation where he solemnly declared "We got here 50 years too late."
In the years since, the IDF has sent delegations of officers to Eastern Europe on a journey that led them to a number of death camps. This year's group, known as "Witnesses in Uniform," will be led by Brig.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, head of Air Force ' Command, and will include 140 officers. They will form the Israeli delegation on the ground during the fly past.
Gen. Eshel chose the aircrews personally. Some were reservists who have participated in many of the IAF's battles. The grandparents of another pilot both survived Auschwitz and moved to Israel. Another pilot is the son of partisans who fought the Nazis.
But Capt. Shai, the F-15 navigator who will be in the lead jet, is the son of Moroccan and Iraqi parents.
"I am a member of the Jewish people and that serves as my connection to the Holocaust. This is also very important for me because it shows our might today,"
said Shai, 25, whose last name could not be revealed due to security regulations."We are returning to a nation where there was an attempt to vanquish the Jewish nation from a position of strength," Capt. Shai said. "Not only will we be remembering the six million murdered in the Holocaust, but this flight has great importance today since it shows the vitality, versatility and might of the Air Force."
"The IAF has recently been doing a lot of cooperation with many air forces and you can say that going to Poland with the F-15s shows our long arm and our ability to operate in far off, unknown lands," Capt. Shai.
"It is hard to tell what I will feel when I will be in the cockpit then," said Capt. Shai.
"But this is a camp where so many Jews were killed and for us to come back in an F-15, the greatest symbol of the Jewish nation's strength, will characterize the whole route our people have taken. I will feel very proud."
The jets will return to the Polish air force base after the fly past, refuel and head back to Israel.
By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN
