Edmonton Journal

Israel ramps up offensive against Hamas

Death toll mounts in Gaza Strip; rockets hit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv

- Josef Federman And Najib Jobain The Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Israel on Tuesday launched its largest offensive in the Gaza Strip in nearly two years, carrying out a blistering aerial assault on scores of targets and killing 25 people in what officials called an open-ended operation aimed at ending weeks of heavy rocket fire.

As Gaza militants unleashed salvos on cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel mobilized forces along the border for a possible ground invasion.

The offensive set off the heaviest fighting between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas since an eightday battle in November 2012. The militants fired about 160 rockets at Israel, including a strike that reached the northern city of Hadera for the first time, while Israel said it attacked more than 150 sites across Gaza.

Palestinia­n medics reported at least 25 dead, including six killed in an airstrike that flattened an apartment building in southern Gaza and set off widespread panic.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said continued rocket attacks against his people would not be tolerated. “Therefore I have ordered the military to significan­tly broaden its operation against Hamas terrorists and against the other terrorist groups inside Gaza,” he said on national TV. “I call on you to display patience because this operation could take time.”

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have engaged in numerous rounds of fighting over the years. But until recently, they had been observing a truce that ended the previous hostilitie­s in 2012.

Tensions have been rising since Palestinia­n militants kidnapped three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank on June 12. Accusing Hamas of being behind the abductions, Israel launched a crackdown on the group’s members in the West Bank and arrested hundreds of people. Hamas, which controls Gaza, responded by stepping up rocket fire.

The situation deteriorat­ed last week after the bodies of the Israeli youths were found, and a Palestinia­n teenager in Jerusalem was abducted and burned to death in what Palestinia­ns believe was a revenge attack. Six Jewish Israelis have been arrested in the killing, and the rocket fire from Gaza has increased in recent days.

The fighting raged throughout the day. In its fiercest attack, an airstrike flattened the home of a Hamas militant in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, reducing the concrete structure to a smoulderin­g pile of rubble.

Panicked residents fled, some with bloody faces, and crying mothers held small children as they ran away. Screaming Palestinia­ns took away motionless bodies. Palestinia­n medical officials said six people, including two children, were killed. Israel’s military said it had called the home shortly before the airstrike to warn civilians to leave, something it has done in past fighting as well.

The normally bustling streets of Gaza City were deserted late Tuesday. Fearing an Israeli ground operation, many residents from areas near the border moved to stay with relatives living deeper inside Gaza.

In southern Israel, hundreds of thousands of citizens were ordered to stay close to home because of the rockets. Israeli streets were also quieter in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem after attempted rocket strikes set off air-raid sirens in Israel’s two largest cities. The Jerusalem municipali­ty said it was opening special bomb shelters.

Militants twice fired rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, sending people scurrying for cover. Both were intercepte­d by the “Iron Dome” rocket defence system, with the second shown on live TV, as a winding plume of smoke followed the intercepto­r into the black skies, culminatin­g with a flash.

Late Tuesday, Hamas said it fired four rockets toward Jerusalem, and two distant booms were heard from the city’s centre. Three rockets landed in the Jerusalem area, officials said, and police said there were no injuries.

With its new reach, Hamas’ rockets now have an estimated five million people — more than half of Israel’s population — in range.

In other violence, the Israeli military said it foiled Gaza militants who tried to infiltrate a military base in southern Israel by sea. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said four attackers came ashore and attacked the base with grenades and automatic rifles before they were killed. An Israeli soldier was slightly wounded.

As Israel built up forces along the border, the government authorized the army to activate up to 40,000 reservists.

“If we need to go inside in a ground operation, then we will do it. These things are on the table. These options exist. We will not stop anything until the rocket firing ends,” said Yitzhak Aharonovit­ch, the minister for internal security and a member of Netanyahu’s inner Security Cabinet.

The U.S. State Department condemned the rocket fire on Israeli civilians, defended Israel’s right to protect itself, and said it hoped Israel’s “strong message” would deter further attacks. “But certainly, our preference is to de-escalate the situation on the ground,” spokeswoma­n Jen Psaki said.

Once there was Operation Cast Lead, then came Pillar of Defence and now the Gaza Strip is the target of Protective Edge. Israel’s various attempts to stop Hamas, the radical Islamist movement, from using this Palestinia­n territory as a giant launch pad for rocket attacks have carried numbingly repetitive labels.

As strike aircraft fill the sky with white contrails yet again, the question is whether this operation will tread the same path of escalation as its predecesso­rs.

No one doubts that the conflict is intensifyi­ng. Hamas fired 100 rockets at Israel on Monday alone and dozens more followed Tuesday. Israel, meanwhile, struck 50 targets across Gaza in the space of a few hours. Thirteen Palestinia­ns were killed.

If, as Israel’s leaders believe, Hamas’s military commanders have chosen escalation, their next move would be to strike beyond the towns lying within 40 kilometres of Gaza and fire longer-range rockets at bigger population centres. Israel’s likely response would be air raids designed to kill Hamas leaders, not simply the foot soldiers who launch the projectile­s.

The next stage would be for Hamas to deploy its biggest rockets against Tel Aviv itself. If so, Israel might follow up the air strikes with a ground invasion of Gaza. Contrary to his image, however, Benjamin Netanyahu is a deeply cautious prime minister. He will be reluctant to risk a ground operation. And there is one further considerat­ion. What if an Israeli assault was too successful for its own good and Hamas was destroyed? Would its successors in Gaza be any more palatable? Might they even be jihadists cut from the same cloth as those who have overrun northern Iraq?

“If Israel deals Hamas a mortal blow, who will fill the government­al vacuum that it will leave behind?” asked Nahum Barnea, an Israeli commentato­r in Yedioth Ahronoth, a local daily. “Gaza is liable to become an anarchy like Somalia or a refuge for terror organizati­ons affiliated with al-Qaida. Hamas is bad, but maybe it’s the lesser evil.”

So Netanyahu must grapple with an unfamiliar dilemma: How to punish Hamas, but not bring it down.

 ?? SA I D K H AT I B /A F P/G e tt y I m ag e s ?? Palestinia­ns sit on the street after a deadly Israeli air strike targeted their house Tuesday in the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Israeli attacks on Gaza killed 25 people.
SA I D K H AT I B /A F P/G e tt y I m ag e s Palestinia­ns sit on the street after a deadly Israeli air strike targeted their house Tuesday in the town of Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Israeli attacks on Gaza killed 25 people.
 ?? Eya d Ba ba / t h e ass o c i at e d p r e ss ?? An Israeli missile explodes in Rafah Tuesday. The Israeli military launched an offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rocket attacks against Israel.
Eya d Ba ba / t h e ass o c i at e d p r e ss An Israeli missile explodes in Rafah Tuesday. The Israeli military launched an offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rocket attacks against Israel.

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