TEL AVIV — Israel's military has identified the source of most
Hizbullah rocket attacks against the Jewish state.
Israeli military sources said Hizbullah has been using the southern city
of Tyre for rocket strikes against Haifa and the rest of northern Israel.
The sources said Hizbullah gunners, based in residential areas, have been
firing a range of Katyusha-class rockets, including the Syrian-origin 220 mm
Grad, with a range of 70 kilometers.
"Most of the Hizbullah rocket sites have been neutralized," a military
source said. "A major holdout has been Tyre."
Over the last day, Israeli warplanes struck three Hizbullah rocket sites
in Tyre, Middle East Newsline reported. The air force also destroyed Hizbullah's command and control
center, a six-story building.
The air force strikes have eroded the effectiveness of Hizbullah rocket
attacks, the sources said. They said Hizbullah gunners, wary of Israeli
fighter-jets and attack helicopters, have rushed their fire and failed to
strike strategic facilities in Haifa.
As a result, the sources said, most of the rockets fired over the last
three days have landed in open areas. The sources said Hizbullah, which has
called for a ceasefire, has been firing between 100 and 150 rockets per day,
far fewer than the militia's plan to pummel Israel with up to 1,000 rockets
daily.
"Hizbullah's rocket fire has been increasingly ineffective although they
have thousands of rockets left," a source said. "If it was up to Hizbullah,
there would be nothing left in the north [of Israel]."
On Wednesday, Hizbullah fired about 130 rockets in which more than 30
Israelis were injured. Hizbullah resumed rocket fire on Thursday morning.
In a report dated July 21, the U.S. Congressional Research Service,
which provides analysis to the House and Senate, asserted that Israel would
encounter tremendous difficulties in battling Hizbullah's mobile rocket
launchers. CRS also dismissed any use of Israeli missile defense systems to
counter the Hizbullah rocket threat.
"Many of these [Hizbullah] munitions can be launched from mobile
launchers, enabling them to 'shoot and scoot,' thereby significantly
reducing the effectiveness of counterattacks," the report said. "Though
Israel has invested significantly in developing missile defense systems,
these relatively short-range munitions have such brief flight times that
interception is virtually impossible. Consequently, offensive operations
against the launchers and munition storage sites remain the primary
effective countermeasure."
But the Israeli sources said Israeli intelligence has also identified
and tracked
Hizbullah mobile medium- and long-range rocket launchers around Beirut. They
said most of these sites, identified by the Mossad and military
intelligence, have been destroyed.
"Hizbullah has built special rooms inside ordinary residential buildings
used to launch rockets," former Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe
Ya'alon said in an address to the Washington Institute last week. "But they
didn't know that we know that, and were surprised."
On Thursday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened his ministerial
security committee to plan the next stage of the war. Officials said most
senior Cabinet ministers have opposed the widening of the ground war in
Lebanon.
The brunt of the military's ground operation in Lebanon has been Bint
Jbail, where eight Israeli soldiers were killed in a Hizbullah ambush on
Wednesday. Military sources said the battalion sent to the Lebanese city of
35,000 was proportionally far smaller than the size of military units
deployed in the Gaza Strip earlier this month.
The sources said combat helicopters took six hours to evacuate the
injured soldiers. They said the Hizbullah force consisted of 30 fighters,
equipped with anti-tank weapons, mortars, improvised explosive devices and
assault weapons.
"At this stage, I am against expanding ground operations," Justice
Minister Haim Ramon said. "Our advantage over Hizbullah is in our firepower
and not in fighting them face-to-face."