By Xinhua
Gaza : Dozens of Islamic Jihad (Holy War) supporters rejoiced in impulsive rallies on Gaza streets after hearing the news that a rocket attack by their movement and another faction has wounded 67 Israeli soldiers.
In al-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, about 70 people have taken to the streets, some of them distributing sweets while loudspeaker praising the shelling on southern Israel.
Earlier, Al-Quds Brigades, armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility for launching a home-made rocket into southern Israel early Tuesday.
The number of Israeli casualties is the biggest ever in the history of the Palestinians’ makeshift rockets on southern Israel communities. The missile landed on an Israeli army camp and wounded the sleeping soldiers.
“This is a very powerful operation” and “I hail Saraya al-Quds and the PRC and appeal for them for more such operations,” said university student Ahmed al-Sheikh who participated in one of the celebrations.
Al-Sheikh, meanwhile, expressed that he is not afraid of an Israeli invasion into the Gaza Strip in response to the attack. “If invading Gaza was an easy thing for them, they would have invaded it ages ago.”
Islamic Hamas movement, which administrates the Gaza Strip since it took over the strip in June after forcing out its rival Fatah movement under Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has advocated the attack though its military wing decreased this kind of resistance after the June takeover.
“We, Hamas, affirm the continuation of resistance and also agree that all military wings have the right to defend the Palestinian people from the Israeli aggressions,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters.
“These rockets are meant to counter the ongoing Israeli offensive on our people… the resistance is a state of self-defense,” he added.
Another Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoom, also praised the attack, calling it a “victory from God.”
“We consider this a victory from God for the resistance,” Barhoum said on Hamas radio. “We consider the resistance as the legitimate right of the Palestinians to defend themselves and restore their rights.”
The Islamic Jihad said the bombardment has held several messages “for both the Israeli enemy and the feuding brothers in the Gaza Strip and Ramallah.”
Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, urged Hamas and Fatah, who have been challenging each other since Hamas routed Fatah in Gaza fighting, to “stand next to each other in the resistance ditch.”
“This operation says to our people in Gaza and the West Bank that it is enough and we don’t want more divisions,” he continued.
Fatah remains dominant in the West Bank where President Abbas of Fatah has formed a government after ending a short-lived unity government headed by Hamas.
Hamas neglected Abbas’ decisions and continued ruling Gaza, turning it into a totally closed territory.
Nassel al-Laham, political analyst and the editor in chief of Maan, an independent local news agency, said the Israeli community” has woken up today on an unexpected big chock.”
Speaking to al-Quds radio of the Islamic Jihad, al-Laham said the moderate (Israeli) leaders, like Premier Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, were standing impotent while the hardliners were the only sides to speak and demand to take the avenge from Gaza.
However, Israel’s right-wing parties has called on harsh response to Gaza following the Qassam attack on a army recruit training base in southern Israel, local Yedioth Ahronoth said.
Prime Minister Olmert also plans to meet with the defense minister to discuss the recent developments, while several of his cabinet ministers have publicly called on Olmert to launch a military operation in Gaza, according to the report.
“The hourglass has long since run out, a red line has been crossed” and a military operation in Gaza is unavoidable, said Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai.
Gideon Sa’ar, Knesset (parliament) member from the right-wing Likud faction, also held that “a military operation, with the inclusion of ground forces, is unavoidable in sealing with the surge in rocket fire against Israel and the strengthening of Hamasin Gaza.”
“The longer we wait for such an operation, the higher the price we will have to pay to complete it,” he stressed.
Another lawmaker Zevulun Orlev, who is also chairman of the National Union-NRP urged that “instead of embracing Abbas and freeing murderers, the government should be fulfilling its duty to defend the citizens of the State of Israel and ordering a ground operation in Gaza.”
The Palestinian factions have said the attacks on southern Israel were in response to the ongoing Israeli offensive that doesn’t stop in the West Bank.
The offensive continued on Tuesday with the Israeli army storming Jenin town in northern West Bank and wounding seven residents, most of them children.
They were caught in the middle of clashes between the soldiers, who surrounded a house looking for gunmen holed up inside, and Palestinian fighters.