IAF Hits Gaza Smuggling Tunnels, Israel Awaits American Envoy/Pali Sympathizer

The Israeli Cabinet is meeting to decide on just how far they are willing to take attacks against Hamas in Gaza in retaliation for the IED bombing of an IDF jeep that killed one IDF soldier on the Israeli side of the Gaza border. I shouldn't have to tell any of you that I would suggest the Israelis continue until they have killed at least three Hamas leaders and/or commanders as retribution. At the same time, President Obama's middle east envoy, former Senator George Mitchell, a known Pali sympathizer is on his way to Israel. Here's some of the details from Breitbart:

The Israeli Cabinet met to consider how far to go in its response to Tuesday's bombing. U.S. envoy George Mitchell said it was "critical" that the cease-fire be extended, as he met Egypt's president before heading to Jerusalem.
There was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's bombing, but Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency, released a video of the roadside bombing allegedly filmed by militants it did not identify.
The images showed a large explosion next to a jeep moving on the Israeli side of the border fence. A huge plume of smoke emerges as the jeep stops. Two Israeli soldiers are then seen running toward the jeep, and gunfire is directed at them before a secondary blast hits them, too.
"Hamas unfortunately controls the Gaza strip and is directly responsible for all hostile fire from Gaza into Israel," government spokesman Mark Regev told The Associated Press.

"Israel wants the quiet in the south to continue but yesterday's attack is a deliberate provocation designed to undermine and torpedo the calm. If Hamas acts to undermine the cease-fire, it will have no one but itself to blame for the consequences," he said.

I like what Regev is saying here - when Hamas leadership knows that they will be targeted EVERY time some renegade cell decides to attack, no matter who it is, then I believe we will see these attacks reduced.

The real problem for Israel is that Hamas isn't going to really expound upon these IED attacks now that they have seen it actually kill an IDF soldier. Plus, the components of an IED are easily smuggled into Gaza.

Israeli warplanes hit Gaza tunnels

President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy sought Wednesday to boost a 10-day-old Gaza cease-fire that was thrown into turmoil, as Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza smuggling tunnels in retaliation for a Palestinian bombing that killed a soldier.
The Israeli Cabinet met to consider how far to go in its response to Tuesday's bombing. U.S. envoy George Mitchell said it was "critical" that the cease-fire be extended, as he met Egypt's president before heading to Jerusalem.
The violence is the worst since Israel and Hamas separately declared cease-fires on Jan. 18 to end a three-week Israeli offensive against the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate hard for any violations of the informal truce.
The soldier was killed Tuesday on Israel's frontier with the Gaza Strip by a roadside bomb planted on the Gaza side and set off by remote control, the military said. Three other soldiers patrolling the border were injured.
Israel responded swiftly, sending tanks and bulldozers into northern Gaza to plow up the attack site and launching an airstrike that wounded a Hamas militant "who was prominent in the organization accountable for the attack," the military said. Hamas said the Israeli strike injured one of its men as he rode a motorcycle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
Airstrikes early Wednesday targeted the network of tunnels used to smuggle arms, money and people into Gaza from Egypt. Israel bombed the tunnels heavily during the war, but smugglers resumed work after the cease-fire.
There was no claim of responsibility for Tuesday's bombing, but Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency, released a video of the roadside bombing allegedly filmed by militants it did not identify.