Another suicide bombing:
At least 19 people were killed yesterday when a woman walked into a beachfront restaurant crowded with families in Haifa, on Israel’s north coast, and detonated explosives strapped to her body. Among the dead were at least three children.
And the familiar response:
Israeli gunships have fired at least two missiles at Palestinian targets in Gaza City and several more at a refugee camp. There is no word of any casualties but two houses were damaged.
The air strikes came hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber from the West Bank blew herself up in a crowded restaurant in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing at least 19 and wounding up to 55 others.
I’m pretty sure I understand the motives and targeting of the suicide bombers–they just look for soft targets where they can render maximum physical and psychological damage.
But what of these Israeli strikes? What’s behind their targeting? They are categorically described as retaliatory strikes, but retaliation against who? Surely the Israelis cannot, in the span of a few hours, identify and locate the players directly responsible for the immediate bombing. So how do they single out the people they target? Do they have a list of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members which they check off whenever they want to retaliate for a bombing? If that’s the case it seems they might not wait until another attack to move against the suspected militants.