10,000 Israeli soldiers ready for Gaza invasion
Armoured unit at the border as airstrikes pound Hamas
MORE than 10,000 Israeli soldiers were massing on the border with Gaza last night as conflict in the Middle East intensified.
Thousands of reservists were called up and holidays axed for full-time soldiers as Israel prepared for an advance into the Palestinian territory.
The moves came after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly rejected a plea for a ‘mutual ceasefire’ from Hamas.
The Israeli premier was last night studying plans for what would be the first ground invasion of Gaza since 2014.
However, sources suggest that sending paratroopers, tanks and heavy weaponry within striking distance of the Gaza Strip may simply be a ‘show of strength’.
Israeli military commanders are also said to be lobbying against a full-scale invasion of Gaza because its air strikes on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets are proving highly effective.
They have also warned that any advance into Palestinian-held territory would lead to further civilian casualties. By last night at least 83 Palestinians and seven Israelis had been killed.
More than 1,000 rockets had landed inside Israel, including 264 in inhabited areas, since fighting began on Monday. Yesterday an Ayyash 250 rocket flew 200 miles into Israeli territory, crashing near the southern city of Eilat.
Rockets also crashed into buildings in Israel’s commercial capital, Tel Aviv, injuring five. The violence has also spread to mixed communities of Jews and Arabs in Israel, a new front in the long conflict.
Diplomatic efforts to avert a fullscale conflict between Israel and the Palestinians also continued yesterday as the US sent its envoy Hady Amr to the region.
President Joe Biden said he hoped the fighting would be ‘closed down’ sooner rather than later while Russia’s Vladimir Putin and UN Secretary General Antonio Gutterres appealed in a video call for an end to the violence.
Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron of France have also called for a de-escalation of the fighting, which began when Hamas fired rockets into Israeli territory in response to the mistreatment of Palestinians in Jerusalem.
Last night, an Israeli government source suggested the troops on the Gaza border would only engage if the situation worsened. He said: ‘You should have contingencies in place. You want the pieces on the chessboard ready to move, not off it.’
Israel has hit close to 1,000 militant targets in Gaza in the last four days on aerial missions led by F- 35 stealth bombers and Apache attack helicopters. On Wednesday Israel killed a senior Hamas commander in an air strike and bombed several buildings it said were linked to the militant group’s activities.
Michael Clarke, formerly of the Royal United Services Institute, said: ‘The aerial campaign has damaged Hamas’ command and control network, so the Israelis would like to continue with this strategy. At this stage I think a significant ground offensive remains unlikely.’
‘You want pieces on the chessboard’