Summary of Events as of 17:30
5 January 2009
IAF planes have recently targeted dozens of tunnels used by the Hamas terror organization, located along the Rafah border. The Hamas tunnel network is used for the smuggling of weapons, for the movement of Hamas terror operatives from the Gaza Strip and back, and is an integral part of the operations in which Hamas purchases and is supplied with weaponry. During the operation, IDF forces hit dozens of terror operatives.
The aerial and artillery forces also assisted the Ground Forces by attacking armed gunmen approaching the Ground Forces and striking launching areas from which Hamas fired rockets at the IDF and at Israeli civilians.
In addition, the IAF attacked over forty additional targets throughout the Gaza Strip. These targets included a tunnel rigged with explosives, a number of weaponry storage facilities, among them houses of Hamas terror operatives– one of which housed an underground tunnel, a number of weapons manufacturing sites, rocket launching areas, and a rocket launcher itself.
Also today (Jan.5), 80 trucks with humanitarian aid were transferred into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
More than 30 rockets have been launched at Israel since this morning, landing in heavily populated areas and damaging a number of structures, including a kindergarten in Ashdod, which was closed at the time by the Home Front Command due to the rocket attacks perpetrated over the past week by Hamas.
