Troops deployed as rocket attack on Israel raises tensions
● Netanyahu cuts short US trip ● Shadow over 9 April elections
The Israeli military has deployed troops along its southern border, after a longrange rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into a house in central Israel and wounded seven people.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a highprofile visit to Washington in the wake of the attack, and promised a tough response while Gaza’s Hamas leaders went into hiding, setting the stage for a possible major conflagration just two weeks before Israeli elections.
The sounds of air raid sirens jolted residents of the Sharon area, north-east of Tel Aviv, shortly after 5am local time, sending them scurrying to bomb shelters. A strong sound of an explosion followed.
The rocket destroyed a residential home in the farming community of Mishmeret, north of the city of Kfar Saba, wounding six members of a family. The Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including two women who were moderately wounded. The others, including two children and an infant, had minor injuries.
The Israeli military said Hamas militants fired the rocket from southern Gaza. It said its Iron Dome rocketdefence system was not activated because the attack in central Israel had not been anticipated. The army added it was reinforcing its missile defence batteries in preparation for an escalation.
Major Mika Lifshitz, a military spokeswoman, said it was a self-manufactured rocket with a range of 75 miles), making it one of the deepest rocket strikes ever carried out by Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu, in Washington to meet US president Donald Trump, held emergency consultations with military officials back in Israel.
He said he would return home immediately after the
White House meeting, canceling an address to the AIPAC pro-israel lobby group and meetings with congressional leaders. “There has been a criminal attack on the state of Israel and we will respond forcefully,” he said.
The early-morning rocket strike came at a sensitive time for both sides. Mr Netanyahu is locked in a tight race for reelection, and faced heavy criticism from his rivals yesterday, and calls to strike back at Hamas.
The Islamic militant group,
meanwhile, is facing perhaps its toughest test since seizing control of Gaza 12 years ago. An Israel-egyptian blockade, imposed to weaken Hamas, combined with sanctions by the rival Palestinian Authority and mismanagement by the Hamas government have all fueled an economic crisis.
Hamas has been leading weekly protests along the Israeli border for the past year in hopes of easing the blockade, but the demonstrations, in which some 190 people have been killed by Israeli fire, have done little to improve conditions.
Yesterday’s attack came ten days after rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel’s densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv. The Israeli military struck back and the sides appeared to be hurtling toward another confrontation. But Gaza’s Hamas leaders said the rocket was fired accidentally.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday’s attack, but it would be much harder to dismiss the latest incident as another misfire.
A possible trigger could have been a prison riot late Sunday when Hamas-affiliated inmates stabbed an Israeli guard in the neck in southern Israel. Guards moved in to subdue the rioters, wounding about a dozen prisoners, three of them seriously. hamas may also be seeking to heat things up with Israel to divert attention from its domestic problems. Senior Hamas officials said the group does not think Mr Netanyahu will launch a war so close to the April 9 election.