Palestinian source: Vengeance forthcoming
Senior Gaza operative says recent attempts to target Israelis is armed groups' retaliation for Gaza offensive; warns militants 'will keep ambushing Israelis wherever and whenever we can'
A senior Palestinian source threatened Sunday that the Gaza militant groups' retaliation for the Israeli offensive in Gaza was still to come.
"We have an open score with the enemy. Our 1,300 dead are still waiting for us to avenge them," he said. The comment was made following two recent terror attacks in the Jordan Valley and the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, and two foiled attacks in Haifa and Shoket Junction, which left three Israelis and four assailants dead.
The source denied that the recent wave of attacks was the militants "welcome wagon" for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new government, saying that the attacks were the groups' response to Operation Cast Lead.
"We will not stop the attacks and will carry them out whenever the situation on the ground permits it. I know the resistance groups are preparing their responses and those will not be delayed long," he said.
According to the source, the Strip's armed groups will seize every opportunity possible to mount an attack on Israeli targets: "We are all about resisting and fighting the enemy. Anyone thinking the war ended in January is wrong. We will keep ambushing Israelis wherever and whenever we can and we will strike… The blood of (our) women and children will keep haunting the Israelis."
The Gaza offensive, he added, "left a deep wound which will not heal until we prove to our people that the Israelis are hurting just as much as out people did during the war in Gaza.
"The Israelis enjoyed the sight of blood and bodies in Gaza, but they must remember that they were not able to stop even one rocket from being fire after the war. They cannot stop up from rearming ourselves and we are determined to get even."
As for the Israeli response to these threats, Commander Yoram Ohayon, head of the police's Operations Department, told Ynet that while Gaza Strip's militant groups are keen on launching attacks, "we don’t expect things to go back to the time of exploding buses, but rather a shift to simple, popular attacks – in other words, terrorists acting alone without an organized group behind them."
As of now, the defense establishment has intelligence indicating several attacks on Israeli targets are imminent, as well as intelligence warning of dozens of possible shooting, abduction and suicide attacks and rocket fire.
