Fighting in Gaza Strip and Lebanon features Israeli military efforts in the Year 2006, but the results have proven not to help Israel out of security troubles as it has been continuously confronting retaliative shelling of rockets from Palestinian militants while licking the wounds caused by the Israel-Lebanon conflict.

ISRAEL'S "OPERATION SUMMER RAINS" IN GAZA STRIP

The long-lasting Israel-Palestine conflict escalated drastically on June 25 when two soldiers of Israel Defense Force ( IDF) were killed and another, Gilad Shalit, was captured by military wings affiliated with Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).

Israeli government responded strongly by launching the "Operation Summer Rains" on June 28 with aerial bombardment on central Gaza Strip and ground incursion into southern Gaza Strip.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli security forces conducted dozens of arrests of Hamas government ministers, parliament members and activists during a swift operation carried out shortly after midnight in Ramallah, Nablus, Qalqilya, Jenin and Jerusalem.

The IDF officials vowed that Israeli forces would go to and operate in all places where it is necessary in order to hinder the Palestinians' ability to conduct attack against Israel and act against the militant infrastructures. Even the office of Ismail Haneya, prime minister of the Palestinian Hamas-led government, was under an aerial attack on July 2.

Statistics in Gaza hospitals showed that some 200 Palestinians, including about 40 children, were killed and over 600 others injured during the Israeli operations in summer.

Moreover, the IDF also destroyed property and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, including the only power plant, which provided 45 percent of Gaza's electricity. That had seriously hampered the functioning of health facilities, water wells, sewage disposal facilities and access to water in buildings of Gaza City.

34-DAY-LONG ISRAEL-LEBANON CONFLICT

Following an IDF strike which killed six Palestinians and injured top Hamas leader Muhammad Deif, the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah guerillas managed to divert Israel's attention to its northern border on July 12, claiming that it captured two IDF soldiers.

The IDF soon launched offensive "Operation Change of Direction" in Lebanon to rescue the two captured soldiers, the operation was later expanded into a 34-day-long conflict.

The IDF displayed their overwhelming military might in the air at the beginning of the war. However, its Air Force's bombardment on Lebanon's road, airport and village did not pay off since Hezbollah continued to succeed in firing over 100 rockets a day at northern Israel.

After launching pinpoint raids in Hezbollah's strongholds such as Bint Jbail and Maroun a-Ras along the northern border, which proved to be ineffective and yielded nothing big, the IDF implemented large-scale ground invasion.

As a result, more than 1,200 Lebanese civilians and at least 60 Hezbollah fighters were killed during the over one-month-long conflict, while the death toll in Israel topped 160, mostly soldiers.

Furthermore, on July 30, an Israeli air raid on the Lebanese village of Qana killed 27 civilians, the deadliest single attack since Israel launched a devastating offensive against Lebanon.

The rampant attack triggered an international outcry against Israel's disproportionate military attack which caused too many civilian casualties as a humanitarian crisis.

In response, Israel claimed that Hezbollah militias have purposely hidden themselves and stockpiled their missiles in residential areas, thus wishing to shield their actions behind civilians.

On Aug. 11, the UN Security Council convened and approved a French and American-backed ceasefire resolution, calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities followed by the deployment of Lebanese troops and a significantly beefed-up UN peacekeeping presence across southern Lebanon as well as the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the area.

"OPERATION AUTUMN CLOUDS" IN GAZA

Before recovering from its frustration in Israel-Lebanon conflict, IDF had to turn back to the south by launching another military operation in Gaza due to fears that Palestinian militant groups are "turning Gaza into south Lebanon," as Palestinian military groups claimed to make their plans for battle against Israel since having learned from Hezbollah's victory, as well as importing rockets and the knowledge to launch them.

Once more, Israel unleashed a major military offensive into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, saying the border town was the launching site of numerous rocket attacks against Israel.

Israel's "Operation Autumn Clouds" in northern Gaza on Nov. 1-6, which was aimed at stemming rocket shelling from Gaza, killed more than 85 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Instead of halting rocket firing by Palestinian militants, Israeli artillery shells killed some 19 civilians in Beit Hanoun on Nov. 8, the bloodiest day for Palestinians in the past several years that brought more Palestinian retaliative attacks on Israel though Israel apologized for the civilian deaths and said it was due to a technical failure.

MORE THREATS FOR ISRAEL AFTER MILITARY EFFORTS

So far, Israel's fighting north and south has proven a failure as no significant results stemmed from the military efforts, either the return of two captured soldiers or elimination of Hezbollah's presence in Lebanon war and neither rescuing Shalit nor halting Qassam shelling from Hamas militants while still facing threats from north and south.

Israeli officials said in a recent assessment that Hezbollah is actually stronger now than it was before the summer's war in Lebanon.

"Since the ceasefire, additional rockets, weapons and military equipment have reached Hezbollah," an Israeli intelligence source said on Nov. 11, adding that "we assume they now have about 20,000 rockets of all ranges, a bit more than they had before July 12."

Media reported that the IDF believes a new round of fighting in the north may begin as early as next spring.

The situation is even worse in the south from Nov. 15 to 21, two Israelis were killed and several others injured in the border city of Sderot in barrages of Qassam rockets fired by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Faced with mounting threats of attacks against civilians, military and security leaders still can not figure out any effective measures to halt rocket attacks.

Although Abbas had called on Palestinian factions to refrain from firing rockets at Israel, rocket attacks seemed to increase.

Palestinian militant organizations claimed that their armed resistance would continue so long as Israeli "aggression" did and their homemade rockets had become more accurate and long-range.

To make things worse, persistence of Israeli control of Gaza's airspace as well as its maritime and land borders impeded economic recovery in Gaza. On the other hand, Israel's use of air strikes in heavily populated areas, assassination and detentions arouse more violence.

Although both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have expressed willingness to talk with each other at the earliest opportunity, no prospect of such a meeting can be seen in a short time.

Abbas conditioned such a meeting on release of Palestinian prisoners, while Olmert said that it would not be done until Shalit was released.

On Nov. 26, a vulnerable truce between Israel and Palestinians militants took effect, ending a five-month Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

However, only hours after the truce took effect, Palestinian militants fired homemade rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot.

Despite the violation, Olmert said that Israel would display " patience and restraint."

The following day, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian militants in the West Bank, raising concerns over fate of the newborn truce.

Local observers say that Israel's fighting against security threats on two fronts seems still far from over.

Source: Xinhua