Chief of staff Ashkenazi: Cease-fire with Hamas will be 'short and brittle'
By Shahar Ilan Haaretz 18 June 2008
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993721.html

Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi expressed skepticism regarding the long-term
prospects of the truce being negotiated between Israel and Hamas yesterday
at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The calm
currently being negotiated between Israel and Hamas will be "short and
brittle," Ashkenazi told the MKs, adding that it is important for Israel to
make the most of the expected lull in hostilities to prepare for a ground
offensive.

"We're on a collision course," he warned. He claimed that the surmounting
pressure of repeated IDF attacks played a part in making the cease-fire
possible.

Discussing the situation in Lebanon and Hezbollah, Brigadier General Yossi
Baidatz, head of the research division of Military Intelligence said that
"they are playing a game of cat and mouse with the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon."

Some 2,500 Hezbollah militants are operating south of Lebanon's Litani
River, in violation of the terms of the cease-fire that ended the Second
Lebanon War, Baidatz said.

Speaking to the MKs at the meeting, Baidatz told lawmakers that the Shi'ite
Islamic group has armed its men with thousands of guns and rockets, which
are distributed among 30 villages spread across the south of Lebanon.

He added that Hezbollah has built a series of bunkers up to 20 meters below
the earth. Each bunker is said to be equipped with a number of rooms,
showers and gun holes, so as to allow militants to remain underground for an
extended period of time. Such facilities allow gunmen to launch surprise
attacks and then immediately disappear underground. He added that an
elaborate system of elevators allows rocket launchers and mortar guns kept
in the bunkers to be raised above ground and fired by remote control.

At the same meeting, Ashkenazi said the army was prepared for any option
against Iran. "Besides the actions and sanctions against Iran, it is
important we remain ready for any options," he said.

Baidatz added that Hamas does not see itself as responsible, during the
expected calm, for preventing attacks by other militant Palestinian
organizations. One of Hamas' goals during the anticipated calm will be to
dig tunnels into Israeli territory that will enable it to to carry out
future attacks.