Israel: February 11, 2004

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Troops went into a Gaza neighborhood to arrest Palestinians who had been firing rockets at Israeli towns. The local Palestinian militia resisted, and 15 Palestinians died (and over 50 were wounded). There were no Israeli casualties. This again pointed out the big differences in attitudes toward professionalism in military operations between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians go more for superficial military preparations (just having weapons and firing them wildly.) The Israelis carefully select, equip and train their troops. The few Palestinians that take this kind of care in combat operations are in terrorist groups and organizing the suicide bombing campaigns. Because these terrorist bombing organizations are so small, the Israelis go after the few key members, since they know that killing or capturing a few dozen people can have a significant impact on lowering number of suicide attacks, or making them much easier to detect and stop.