Deepening military crisis in the Gaza Strip

From Debkafile, April 7, 2006, 5:25 PM (GMT+02:00) ...

Palestinian missile crews shelter in six bases embedded in civilian centers, learn how to cheat Israeli surveillance.

The abrupt escalation Tuesday, April 4, of Israeli military measures to counter the daily Palestinian missile barrages was prompted by a significant upgrading of Palestinian military skills, longer range and better organization.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report the Palestinians have moved their line of missile fire south of the evacuated Israeli locations of the northern Gaza Strip and the Palestinian town of Beit Hanoun, their former sites. Highly mobile, they now shoot from two lines – one in the northern sector, dragging the Qassam missiles to launching sites after learning to cheat Israeli surveillance drones and helicopters, and the second line further south, using longer-range missiles.

By shooting multi-missile salvoes before melting away, as they did Tuesday, the Palestinian launch-teams are able to better elude IDF fire.

All the Palestinian organizations, barring Hamas, are now engaged in the daily barrage of missiles from the Gaza Strip against a widening radius of targets: north to the oil port and power center of Ashkelon and east into the southwestern Negev along a strip from Nahal Oz to Sufa and the Besor Belt near the Egyptian border. The launch crews are virtually impervious to Israeli artillery and air assaults.

Tuesday, April 4, after seven Palestinian missiles exploded inside Israel – one damaging an Ashkelon-Eilat pipeline installation - the IDF finally gave up shelling empty spaces, a futile practice adhered to for more than a year, and turned their artillery on populated areas. A house in Beit Lahiya was shelled, killing two Palestinians and injuring ten.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say this is just the beginning of the deepening military crisis in the Gaza Strip. Two developments make this deterioration unavoidable.
1. All the Palestinian organizations, excepting Hamas, have joined the Qassam offensive against Israel. They are using it to practice activating mobile missile teams while dodging Israeli electronic surveillance and preparing to apply their enhanced capabilities in other arenas.
2. The Palestinian organizations have established six military-type bases outside the range of IDF artillery and tanks as sanctuaries for the missile launchers. They are all embedded in civil population centers and serve also as training installations for Jihad Islami, Popular Resistance Committees, Hamas, Abu Rish Brigades, Fatah-al Aqsa Brigades and the Return Brigades. The last group is being drilled to defend the Gaza Strip against an Israeli raid and carry out raids deep inside Israel.

Israeli gunboats shelled these installations twice last week. But the IDF ground forces deployed around the Gaza Strip will have little choice but to lengthen their sights to bring those six bases within firing range.