JERUSALEM, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- After nearly two weeks of air strikes to suppress both planned terror attacks emanating from Gaza, as well as dozens of rocket strikes on Israeli cities and towns, the Israeli army said the fighting may yet get worse before it subsides.
"It's not over till it's over," Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Southern Command chief Maj-Gen. Tal Russo told Army radio on Monday. "Just today we managed to foil two rocket attacks on Israeli territory."
On Sunday, Israeli aircraft hit a Palestinian rocket-launching crew in the central Gaza Strip, moments after it had fired a projectile at southern Israel, according to an IDF Spokesman's office statement sent to Xinhua.
One man was killed and three were injured in the airstrike, The Jerusalem Post quoted Palestinian medical sources as saying.
"We are in an interesting time period in which we are ready to face any challenge in this region and in general," Russo said.
The strike was the third carried out by the Israel Air Force over the past 24 hours, which killed three militants affiliated with Global Jihad groups operating in the coastal territory.
In another strike conducted earlier in the day, aircraft targeted a rocket crew in the southern Strip while it prepared to fire projectiles at Israel, with the pilots reporting a direct hit that killed one, according to a statement.
On Saturday night, an Israeli airstrike killed a top Palestinian militant and his accomplice while they were riding a motorcycle in northern Gaza. The militant was plotting to launch an attack along the Israel-Egyptian border with the help of Sinai- based militants, and was responsible for firing a rocket which exploded in the backyard of a home in the southern Israeli city of Netivot on Friday, the military said.
His group was involved in a number of attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in recent years, including a January 2009 bombing attack that targeted an army patrol, in which one soldier was killed and another wounded, as well as an unknown number of rocket attacks.
Last week, Israel carried out several airstrikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in retaliation for a barrage of more than 50 rockets and mortars fired at communities in the western Negev, including three airstrikes launched overnight Friday.
IDF outgoing Gaza Division chief, Col. Tal Hermoni, on Monday said "we'll see more attempts by the enemy to attack. The enemy has become more sophisticated and the attacks it carries out are more complex and better planned," Israel National Radio reported Monday.
However, "it is not in the other side's interest to enter another round of escalation at this stage," Hermoni stressed.
|
