RAMALLAH/GAZA CITY — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday during a weekly Cabinet meeting that Israel “will get all the perpetrators of terror, their superiors, their operators and their masterminds. We will not give special consideration to anyone.”
Then Olmert told his Cabinet that “rage is not a course of action.”
The premier was referring to a Saturday’s incident where 8-year-old Osher Twito lost a leg and his 19-year-old brother was also hurt in a Qassam rocket attack in the backyard of a home in the southern town of Sderot.
The injury to the small child galvanized Israeli outrage. “He loves playing soccer, but he will never play again,” Osher’s mother, Iris Twito, wailed on Channel 2 TV. “How can he play now with no leg?”
In a public statement at the beginning of the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, Olmert said the upsurge in Palestinian rocket attacks is a response to Israel’s own military strikes, claiming that 200 Gazans have been killed in recent months “as a result of initiated, aggressive, planned and comprehensive activity” by the Israeli military and security.
On his way to Germany, Olmert called for patience. “There is no solution of one operation or one bomb,” he said. “It takes time.”
Along with clamoring for a full-scale invasion of northern Gaza to take over the areas where Hamas members have been launching the rockets, there were calls from the Cabinet for assassinating Hamas political leaders and to wipe out a Gaza neighborhood.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed during a visit to Sderot yesterday to continue efforts to put an end to the Qassam fire, and added that the Israeli forces are carrying out various operations in the Gaza Strip, some of them secret, in attempts to stop the rocket fire. “We will continue to attack with all available means,” Barak said.
In the stormy Cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit called on Israeli forces to choose a Gaza neighborhood, warn residents to evacuate and wipe it out. “That is how those in Gaza will understand that we are serious,” he said, adding that all the Hamas leaders must be brought to justice, “or we must bring justice to them.” Sheetrit went on to say that the army must act decisively and with greater force.
Vice Premier Haim Ramon said, “Whoever fires Qassams at Israel is a war criminal. Whoever is involved directly or indirectly should be targeted by the Israeli forces.”
Meanwhile, dozens of Sderot’s residents blocked the entrance to Jerusalem in protest. Alon Davidi, chairman of the Sderot Security Committee, called on Israeli citizens “to stop the governmental failure which abandons Sderot’s residents. Olmert should come here and explain to these cute children why they are not protected.” He added: “It’s not only Sderot. It’s now Ashkelon and the surrounding Kibbutzim as well. We are not asking for something that is illogical. We want to live peacefully.”
Up to now Israeli military strikes have been aimed at rocket squads and Hamas leaders. In 2004, however, Israel killed the founder of Hamas and his successor in two airstrikes four weeks apart.
In another development, Israeli warplanes carried out four airstrikes on different parts of the Gaza Strip early yesterday morning.
In one of the air raids on Rafah city, Mohammed Abu Imteir, a local commander of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas movement, was killed and four others were wounded, Hamas sources said. Several other Palestinians were also injured during the attacks.
An Israeli Army spokesperson said the targeted Hamas member had been involved in smuggling.
<>i— With input from agencies
