On Saturday, January 3, Israel launched a ground assault against Gaza on what was the eighth day of its aerial assaults against the seaside strip of desert. Israel’s stated objective for the ground confrontation is to end all rocket attacks. The immediate objective of the ground operations, according to Major Avital Leibovitch, a military spokeswoman, “is to destroy the Hamas terror infrastructure in the area of operations.”
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz confirmed Tuesday that “significant” indirect contacts have been made with Hizb’Allah through German mediators over a prisoner exchange for three kidnapped Israeli soldiers, but played down reports of an imminent deal.
There has been a marked increase in Palestinian attacks following the premature break-up of peace talks in Taba on Saturday evening, while the IDF managed to intercept an armed Palestinian squad infiltrating from Lebanon, leaving two terrorists dead.
ICEJ NEWS – 08/15/2001 The leading newspaper of the Palestinian Authority reported on its front page on Monday that “the [Israeli] occupation is using naked women to hunt down intifada youth.” The official PA daily Al-Hayat al-Jadidah claimed that last Friday, during a clash at the Karni Junction in Gaza, a female IDF soldier suddenly appeared on top of a tank. “She started to take off her clothes in front of the demonstrators until she was [nearly] naked. Some of the protesters said they were disgusted by it, while others said the Zionist soldier made rude gestures at them,” the … Read more
Israeli tanks and bulldozers on Monday night rumbled into Jenin, prime breeding grounds for Islamic suicide bombers, in a temporary show of force that furious Palestinian officials branded a “declaration of war.” When the IDF seemed poised to make a similar incursion into the Bethlehem area on Tuesday night to quell incessant gunfire at Jerusalem, it appears PLO chief Yasser Arafat was pressured into ordering his Tanzim militia to cease fire.