Palestinians in the Gaza Strip may soon succeed in extending the range of Qassam rockets as far as the southern port city of Ashkelon or beyond, the Israel Defense Forces estimates.

Qassams launched last summer demonstrated a range of 16 kilometers. This means that if fired from the northernmost point in the Gaza Strip, they could land just north of Ashkelon.

The IDF and the Shin Bet security service have been aware for some time that terrorist organizations in Gaza were trying to improve the Qassam's range. Surprisingly, it is apparently Islamic Jihad, which initially simply copied the rockets made by Hamas, that achieved the breakthrough.

	Advertisement

Two of its launches, in July and August 2006, registered ranges of 15 and 16.3 kilometers, respectively. The rockets, which landed in southern Ashkelon, were fired from deep inside Gaza, apparently to deceive Israel about their real range.

Until last summer, Qassams generally had a range of only 10 to 11 kilometers. In a few cases, Palestinians launched Katyusha rockets, which have a range of 20 kilometers, at Israel, but the rockets, which were smuggled in from Sinai, had evidently been poorly maintained and therefore failed to achieve their maximum range.

Islamic Jihad apparently does not have many Katyushas. However, it is trying to mass-manufacture its improved, twin-engine Qassam, with a range of 15-16 kilometers. The security services believe that the organization wants to stockpile such rockets and then wield them as a major weapon during some future escalation of the fighting with Israel.

On another issue, the defense establishment has changed its previous view and now believes that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh did manage to smuggle some $20 million through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza last month. Last week, the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram reported that Haniyeh had smuggled this sum into Gaza at the end of December, upon his return from a trip overseas. But the Egyptian authorities denied this, and the defense establishment accepted their denial.

However, new intelligence obtained by Israel indicates that Al-Ahram's report was correct, and Haniyeh did manage to smuggle in the money.

On Tuesday, the IDF Central Command held an inquiry into last Thursday's botched operation in Ramallah, in which four Palestinians were killed while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm al-Sheikh. The incident weighed heavily on the meeting and led Defense Minister Amir Peretz to demand explanations from the IDF brass. GOC Central Command Yair Naveh later admitted that the timing of the operation was an "error in judgment."

Tuesday's inquiry revealed problems in the performance of the force that entered Ramallah to arrest a wanted man. The suspect, a Fatah operative, ultimately escaped, though he was seriously wounded in the exchange of fire that erupted when the soldiers' presence was prematurely discovered. Altogether, the inquiry concluded, the operation was a failure.

IDF forces arrested 30 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank early Wednesday. On Tuesday, forces arrest 31 wanted Palestinians throughout the West Bank, in the Jenin, Tul Karm, Ramallah and Hebron areas. Two other Palestinians were arrested at the Hawara checkpoint; one was carrying an improvised explosive device, and the other was carrying a knife.