All-out war feared as Israel moves troops toward Gaza, rockets land near Tel Aviv

 

November 16, 2012 – ISRAEL – Israeli tanks and troops moved toward the Gaza Strip on Thursday night in apparent preparation for a possible invasion of the crowded seaside enclave after a day of violence that included two militant rocket strikes on the southern suburbs of Tel Aviv, raising the likelihood that the region was on the brink of all-out war. A day after Israeli aircraft and warships retaliated for hundreds of rockets fired into the country in recent weeks by striking scores of targets in Gaza in the biggest Israeli military operation in four years, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak summoned more than 30,000 reservists to military duty. Barak said the order was intended to make Israel “ready for any development.” Those soldiers could be seen from the Israeli city of Kiriyat Malachi, 20 miles north of Gaza, massing and heading toward the border, even as officials indicated that the decision to invade hadn’t yet been made.  “We have made the preparations, and entering is certainly an option,” said a senior Israeli military official based in southern Israel, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity under the military’s ground rules. “If the politicians were looking for an excuse, Hamas gave them one.” That was a reference to rockets fired by militants in Gaza that struck neighborhoods across the southern Tel Aviv metropolis, the first time Palestinian rockets had reached the densely populated urban center where more than 40 percent of Israelis live. No one was injured in the strikes on Tel Aviv, but three people died in Kiriyat Malachi when a militant’s rocket struck a four-story building. The possibility of all-out war alarmed countries across the globe. Egypt’s Islamist government said Prime Minister Hesham Kandil would visit Gaza on Friday in a show of solidarity with Hamas and ordered the border crossing at Rafah opened around the clock to allow wounded Gazans to seek medical care in Egypt. Gaza’s Hamas leaders said offers of assistance were pouring in from throughout the Arab world. The United States expressed support for Israel and blamed Hamas for triggering the violence by allowing militants to fire rockets into Israel. President Barack Obama spoke with Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, and urged him to broker a cease-fire. Hamas considers itself a close ally of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, of which Morsi was a leading member before he assumed the presidency. France, too, sought to broker peace between the two sides, with the country’s prime minister saying that President Francois Hollande had been in touch with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Morsi. The prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, called the violence “dangerous for the security” of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to news reports. Morsi sided with Hamas, saying, “The Israelis must realize that this aggression is unacceptable and would only lead to instability in the region and would negatively and greatly impact the security of the region.” On the streets of Tel Aviv, there was a new sense of vulnerability, even though police said the two rockets that landed here had done so harmlessly, one falling into the water just off the beach in the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Jaffa, and the other striking a field near the town of Rishon Lezion. Still, for many who’d thought they lived in areas of the country safe from attack from Gaza militants the sound of air raid warnings brought a new sense of dread. Israelis strolling along the beach promenade in Tel Aviv went sprawling into the sand in search of cover as police warned that they had less than 90 seconds from the sound of the first siren before a rocket was expected to land. –ADN

The home of Hamas Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh was bombed by the Israel Air Force overnight Thursday, though the Hamas leader was not home during the strike. The targeting of Haniyeh’s home signifies a significant escalation in the IAF’s targeted assassination policy. The IDF began Operation Pillar of Defense to root out the terror infrastructure in Gaza with the targeted killing of Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari on Wednesday. The IDF struck some 150 medium-range rocket launching pads in the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday as well as a number of weapons depots belonging to terror organizations in the coastal territory, as Operation Pillar of Defense entered its third day. After more than 300 rockets were fired into Israel since Operation Pillar of Defense began on Wednesday, only a small number of rockets landed in Israel overnight Thursday, mainly in open areas. The barrage of rocket fire renewed on Friday morning with rockets hitting  residential areas in the Ashdod and Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council areas, causing some damage to property and leaving several people suffering shock. Red alert warning sirens began sounding off in communities across the South just after 7a.m. on Friday morning, including in Beersheba, Ofakim and Sderot. The IDF stated Friday morning that it has struck more than 500 terror targets in Gaza since the operation to root out terror infrastructure in the coastal territory was initiated. –Jerusalem Post