Under the Cover of Rocket Fire

Hamas has stated that it will no longer be held to the truce, which was never truly a truce as Hamas and other Palestnian terrorists routinely violated it with rocket fire.

Well, after yesterday's incidents, Hamas launched yet more kassams at Israel, this time to divert attention from a possible plot to capture more Israelis to be held as bargaining chips for prisoner releases.

The barrages of Kassam rockets and mortar shells Hamas fired at Israel on Tuesday morning were meant to provide cover for and distract attention from an attempted infiltration by a terror cell, whose members intended to kidnap IDF soldiers deployed along the Gaza border, IDF sources reported Tuesday afternoon.

The sources said that the army's heightened alert, as well as a quick response by ground troops and IAF helicopters that had been hovering over Gaza, foiled the attempt. According to preliminary reports, no cell managed to cross into Israel.

The IDF has been on high alert in recent weeks, ever since receiving intelligence that Hamas was planning to abduct soldiers in a raid similar to the one near Kerem Shalom in June, 2006 in which Cpl. Gilad Schalit was captured.

According to an IDF source, Tuesday's attack was "Hizbullah-style," in that the group launched rockets to distract the troops on patrol and provide cover for the cell members' movements.

The Palestinian terrorists use the cover of a truce only as long as needed to regroup and rearm, and Hamas believes that now is the time to strike in force. Since last summer, Hamas has been licking its wounds and firing on Israel sporadically, leaving the bulk of rocket fire to come from other Palestinian terrorist groups.

UPDATE:
Predictably, Hamas and media pick up reports that the dissolution of the truce is Israel's fault. That, of course, ignores the continual kassam rocket fire launched by Palestinian terrorists without regard to any ceasefire or truce.

This puts the Palestinian Authority in a real difficult spot since Hamas is making no bones about their rocket attacks on Israel, and the PA needs to paper over the reality so that the West and the US don't put the screws on what economic aid has been forthcoming.

UPDATE:
Someone in Israel seems to have a functioning neuron, and has noted the same thing I've been saying for some time now. The Palestinians keep mistaking restraint for weakness. The latest Hamas barrage includes 12 rockets and 20 mortars. Thankfully no one has been injured, but the point of that fire was to cause injury and carnage.