According to an article from JP:
A large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip has dropped to the back burner in recent days after an assessment within the defense establishment found that the daily border raids the IDF has been conducting have had an effect on Hamas’s military capabilities, senior defense officials said Tuesday.
If you are ready to believe this crapola, here is more:
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the operation had achieved “very important results” in the fight against the manufacture and firing of Kassam rockets and mortar shells. Speaking during a visit to a navy base in Haifa, Barak said that IDF operations like the one on Tuesday allowed Israelis to celebrate Hanukka and light candles in peace.
But hold the horses with the celebrations, here is some news for Barak:
As post-Annapolis talks were set to kick off around Wednesday noon, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two barrages of Kassam rockets at the western Negev. One person was lightly wounded and two very lightly wounded; one of the rockets landed on a sidewalk in the middle of a main street in the city.
Several salvoes fired in the early morning hours amounted to a total of 17 rockets fired in a space of less than two hours.
This immediately after the operation that “achieved very important results”…
Update: and more government-issue crap:
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Tuesday to remove the threat of Qassam rockets from the southern part of the country.
Yeah… like we keep hearing for the last 7 years.
Cross-posted on SimplyJews.
Olmert will define the Southern part of the country as Eilat. Thus since the Qassam rockets do not (yet) land in Eilat he will claim to have kept his promise. Of course, by this definition, Sderot is not in the southern part of the country and he has therefore not promised to stop the rockets from hitting there.