Egypt’s military issued a stern warning to Palestinians and Syrians living near the country’s port city of Suez against interfering with Egypt’s internal affairs.


The country’s state-run news agency carried the statement the day after violent clashes in Suez between local shop owners and supporters of the overthrown Morsi reportedly injured 112 people.

The warning came less than a week after Hamas was caught attempting to smuggle 19 Grad rockets into Cairo via Sinai, according to a high level Egyptian Army officer.
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Hamas terror chief Khaled Meshal and Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Iran on Sunday, February 1, 2009.

Iranian ‘Supreme Leader’ Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei told Meshal in Tehran that “the Islamic resistance (Hamas) should be prepared for any possible situation, including a fresh war in Gaza,” according to Iran’s state-controlled media outlet, Fars.

Last Spring, Iran promised the Hamas terrorist group advanced missiles, other weapons, financial support, and military training.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised that if Hamas continued its Gaza-based deadly rocket attacks on Israel, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) would respond with ‘disproportionate’ force.


After a cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Olmert stated that:

The Cabinet’s position from the outset was that if firing continues against residents of the South, there would be a sharp Israeli response that would be disproportional vis-a-vis the firing at residents of the State of Israel and at our forces. We will not go back to the rules of the game that the terrorist organizations tried to dictate in the past. We will act according to new rules that will ensure that we are not dragged into an unending shooting war on the southern border that denies southern residents a normal life.

Meanwhile, IDF Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin believes that Hamas is currently acting in a defensive posture, concluding that the terrorist group “has been deterred, and is honoring the ceasefire, but is not deterring [other terrorist groups] enough.”

Former Lt. General Thomas McInerney told the Jerusalem Post that Israel was “too restrained and could have gone deeper into Gaza.”