Al-Manar
"18/11/2007 "The Annapolis conference aims to stabilize the situation in the West Bank, because Gaza is already a lost cause," Israeli Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said Sunday while touring 'Nativ Haasara', a community on the border with Gaza. During his visit, Dichter heard criticism from angry Israeli residents who protested the town's ongoing bombardment by Qassam rockets and mortars fired from the Gaza Strip.
During his tour of this border community of 700, which included inspecting homes and greenhouses damaged by rocket and mortar fire, the head of the local agricultural committee, Shaike Shaked, told Dichter that area residents wanted the Israeli occupation army to continue working to halt rocket fire from Gaza. "It is impossible to live like this, the community is close to collapsing," he added.
During a meeting with Israeli settlers, one resident said, "We have no life, the Israeli army does not respond and the situation only gets worse - maybe someone should just evacuate us."
"It is not enough to cope with the rockets, we must also deal with the growing power of Hamas, which is bringing into the Strip weapons like antitank missiles, which Hezbollah used against us (in last summer's war) in Lebanon," the Israeli Minister said.
Dichter added that military operations in Gaza are unavoidable. "I suggest a three-tiered course of action: operations against the ongoing rocket-fire, operations against Hamas' growing power, and operations against its ability to act," he said.
According to Dichter, chances for operational success are better in Gaza than they were in Lebanon. "Here, unlike in Lebanon, we actually have this option," he said. "There Hezbollah was part of a state, but as for Hamas in Gaza, we have defined it as a hostile entity which enables us to act," he said."
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