Israeli Woman Killed By Palestinian Rocket

The German press agency DPA is reporting that a rocket launched from Gaza has killed an Israeli woman. DPA says this is the first fatality caused in Israel by a Palestinian rocket since March.

DPA also reports serious injury to a young man who happens to be a bodyguard of the Israeli Defense Minister.

Three Palestinian groups have claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said was retaliation for the massacre in Biet Hanoun last week, according to DPA.

The Israelis appear to be threatening massive retaliation.

Defence Minister Peretz, who convened his security chiefs after the strike, said Israel would go after all those responsible for the nearly-daily rocket attacks on Sderot and other Israeli towns and villages adjacent to the Gaza Strip.

"We will act against everyone involved in launching the Qassams, from the heads of the (militant) groups to the last of the activists," he said.
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"We know it is impossible to eradicate the Qassam rocket fire to zero," Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal told Israel Radio after the barrage.

"The solution is that by means of the army, it is possible to force the Palestinians to think differently and that, basically, is the name of the game," he said.

"The fact that it is impossible to eradicate them to the last Qassam rocket is clear. An equation has to be created in which it is not worth it for the Palestinians to fire," he continued.

If the Israeli army can indeed "force the Palestinians to think differently", it will be -- as far as I know -- the first time in human history that any army has been able to force any group of people to think differently. Normally armies are hard-pressed to force people to act differently, though they often delude themselves about this.

As I have mentioned in previous comments, I do not support attacks on civilians in any case, and I am saddened by the loss of life -- and the injuries to innocent people -- in Israel, just as in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and elsewhere.

The conflict between Israel and its neighbors has been going on for as long as I remember (indeed, it started before I was born) and I have never heard Israeli and Palestinian spokesmen agree on anything except that all the violence is the fault of the other side.