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Gaza-Israel Escalation Threatens Cease-Fire Gaza-Israel Escalation Threatens Cease-Fire
(about 5 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continued into southern Israel on Thursday morning, a day after the most intense cross-border exchange in more than a year left a 16-month-old cease-fire and the fragile Middle East peace talks in jeopardy. JERUSALEM — Hostilities between Israel and the Gaza Strip continued Thursday, a day after the most intense cross-border exchange in more than a year left a 16-month-old cease-fire and the fragile Middle East peace talks in jeopardy.
An hourlong barrage of more than 60 rockets rained down on Israeli communities near Gaza on Wednesday starting at about 5 p.m., prompting Israeli airstrikes that hit what the military described as 29 “terror sites” in the Palestinian coastal enclave. Islamic Jihad, the militant Gaza group that sent more than 60 rockets into Israel Wednesday in retaliation for a Tuesday Israeli airstrike that killed three of its members, said that Egypt had brokered a truce starting at 3 p.m. Thursday, restoring the principles of the November 2012, ceasefire that ended eight days of violence.
Islamic Jihad, one of several militant groups in Gaza, claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket attacks, which it said were a response to an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday that killed three of its members. Israel said that the three had fired a mortar at its troops patrolling inside Gaza’s border fence. “We agreed that each party stops from its side to re-enforce the lull,” Nafez Azzam, an Islamic Jihad leader, said in a telephone interview. “It’s the same 2012 agreement, but today it was emphasized. We are committed to the cease-fire as long as Israel is.”
Around 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, two more rockets hit open areas near the southern cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, according to Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman. Four others were launched earlier Thursday but none made it to Israel and a single rocket landed overnight, Colonel Lerner said. Another leader of the group, Khaled al-Batsh, wrote on Facebook, “Following intensive Egyptian contacts and efforts, the agreement for calm has been restored in accordance with understandings reached in 2012 in Cairo.”
No injuries were reported on either side of the border, save for a 57-year-old Israeli woman who fell while running for cover Wednesday afternoon. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, declined to comment.
The exchanges represented an escalation that many officials and analysts have said could threaten not only the 16-month-old cease-fire between Gaza and Israel, but also the American-led peace talks that started last summer. At the same time, both sides seemed to be making some effort to limit the fallout: The Gazans did not fire their longer-range rockets, and Israel’s airstrikes, while forceful, hit in open areas, with no casualties. Reports of the renewed cease-fire came as Israeli airstrikes hit seven locations in southern Gaza, including a training site for Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the coastal enclave, in the border town of Rafah, and smuggling tunnels underneath Gaza’s border with Egypt. The Gaza health ministry reported three people injured in those strikes.
“We have a range of responses, a range of options, and the goal is to bring quiet,” Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, said on Thursday. “If there can be quiet, that’s obviously a good thing. The question is: Can there be quiet?” Thursday morning, two rockets hit open areas near the southern Israeli cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, leading to some panicky parents picking their children up early from school. Four others had been launched earlier but failed to make it to Israel; a fifth had hit in the wee hours.
Thursday’s exchange was moderate compared with the barrage the day before, though the only reported injury Wednesday was to a 57-year-old Israeli woman who fell while running for cover. Israel had retaliated for Wednesday’s rocket assault with airstrikes that hit what the military described as 29 “terror sites” in the Palestinian coastal enclave.
“Our policy in the south is clear,” Mr. Netanyahu said Thursday morning. “We will strike at anyone who tries to attack us and will respond very forcefully to any attack.”
The exchanges represented an escalation that many officials and analysts have said could threaten not only the 2012 cease-fire between Gaza and Israel, but also the American-led peace talks that started last summer. At the same time, both sides seemed to be making some effort to limit the fallout: The Gazans did not fire their longer-range rockets, and Israel’s airstrikes Wednesday night, while forceful, hit in open areas, with no casualties.
“We have a range of responses, a range of options, and the goal is to bring quiet,” Mr. Regev said Thursday morning. “If there can be quiet, that’s obviously a good thing. The question is: Can there be quiet?”
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said in a text message that the rockets “establish a new phase: any aggression will be met with fierce response.”On Wednesday, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said in a text message that the rockets “establish a new phase: any aggression will be met with fierce response.”
The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he saw “no alternative other than a complete takeover of the Gaza Strip” and would oppose any more limited operation. President Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s most vocal supporters of the peace talks, said: “The people of Gaza have to choose — it’s either peace or violence.” The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said he saw “no alternative other than a complete takeover of the Gaza Strip” and would oppose any more limited operation.
President Shimon Peres, one of Israel’s most vocal supporters of the peace talks, said, “The people of Gaza have to choose — it’s either peace or violence.”
Mr. Netanyahu issued a statement even as the rockets were falling around 5:30 p.m. declaring, “We will not be deterred.”Mr. Netanyahu issued a statement even as the rockets were falling around 5:30 p.m. declaring, “We will not be deterred.”