Israeli Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has ordered the military to accelerate plans for a possible broad attack on the rocket stockpiles of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Citing unnamed sources in the General Staff’s Planning Directorate, the Walla news site said that the plan is aimed at significantly reducing the ability of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to target Israel with rockets in the early stages of a future conflict in the Gaza Strip.
The two organizations are working to replenish their rocket supply following the 11-day fight in Gaza this May between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza Strip.
Military officials acknowledged that due mostly to a lack of precise intelligence, the Israeli army was unable to destroy the lion’s share of the armed groups’ existing arsenals of rockets.
General Staff officers regarded intelligence on the various rocket stockpiles in the Gaza Strip as a major weakness, some defining it as a failure.
The May clash saw at least 4,000 rockets and mortar shells fired towards Israel.
The rockets represent a spearhead to the two movements in any conflict with Israel, succeeding in spreading fear among civilians and paralyzing normal life as the Iron Dome fails to intercept all missiles.
Israel says that Hamas uses civilians’ institutions and houses as locations to store and launch missiles from, but Hams denies this.
