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Israel Steps Up Offensive with Deadly Gaza Bombings Israel and Hamas Trade Attacks as Tension Rises
(about 2 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Israel and its Palestinian adversaries in Gaza sharply escalated the latest resurgence of hostilities on Tuesday, with the Israeli military conducting a deadly aerial bombardment that targeted at least 160 Gazan sites, including homes, and militants in the enclave responding with missile volleys aimed at Israeli population centers, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. JERUSALEM — Israel and Hamas escalated their military confrontation on Tuesday, with Israel carrying out extensive air attacks in response to heavy rocket fire and authorizing a major call-up of army reserves for an extended campaign against militants in Gaza.
The Israeli military said Gaza militants fired more than 150 rockets and that Israel’s missile defense system had thwarted at least 29 of them. More than 100 landed in Israel, the military said, but it was unclear whether they had caused any casualties or serious damage. Late Tuesday, Hamas took responsibility for a new wave of up to 40 longer-range rockets, some of them intercepted over Tel Aviv and even Jerusalem, where sirens sounded around 10 p.m. There were no reports of injuries, but the rocket barrage, one of which hit an open area in outer Jerusalem, put pressure on the Israeli government to respond with greater force.
Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, took responsibility late Tuesday for having fired up to 40 long-range rockets, some of them intercepted over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, where sirens sounded around 10 p.m. The Israeli military confirmed that one rocket hit Hadera, a city about 72 miles north of Gaza, the farthest range yet of the Gaza-based weapons. Israeli warplanes struck 150 sites that Israeli officials said harbored Islamist fighters in Gaza, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized the call-up of 40,000 reservists, apparently to give Israel the option of a ground invasion of Gaza. He said he was prepared to “remove the gloves” and undertake the third major military offensive against militants in the Hamas-controlled territory in five years if rocket attacks from Gaza did not cease.
Palestinian witnesses and health officials said at least 23 people had been killed in the Israeli attacks. They included seven in a house that was bombed after its occupants had been warned in a cellphone call to leave, and six in another house that members of Islamic Jihad, another militant group, said had belonged to one of its commanders. Both sides resorted to a show of military strength after a series of quick-fire events that illustrated the extreme fragility of Israeli-Palestinian relations, starting with the collapse of American-sponsored peace talks, the attempts by rival Palestinian factions to form a coalition government, the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers and the subsequent kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager.
It was the deadliest day so far in the latest escalation of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fed partly by the raw rage over the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank last month, a massive security crackdown by Israel there, and the grisly kidnapping and killing of a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem last week. Palestinian officials said that at least 23 people were killed Tuesday in Gaza, where repeated bombardments shook buildings and sent thousands of people into the streets. Israeli officials said two people in Israel were wounded by rocket attacks on Monday.
In an ominous indication of further escalation, the Israeli government approved the call-up of 1,500 reservists, mainly Home Front Command and aerial defense units, and said later Tuesday that it had authorized the military to mobilize as many as 40,000 additional reservists if necessary for a possible ground invasion. As the rockets and jet fighters flew, Israeli officials emphasized that their goal was to restore quiet to southern Israel, where many thousands of Israelis fled to shelters and schools were shut. But Mr. Netanyahu’s government was also under pressure for a more extensive operation, including ground troops, to destroy a military infrastructure in Gaza rebuilt since Israel’s last campaign there in 2012.
The Israeli military also reported Tuesday evening, with little detail, that it had defeated an effort to attack an army base in southern Israel by “several gunmen armed with grenades” who had approached from the sea. The army said it had killed four of the gunmen and was searching for others. At the same time, Hamas needed to show more radical groups in Gaza that it could stand up to Israel. Weakened by the installation of an antagonistic military-backed government in Egypt that has moved to seal the border with Gaza, sharply reducing Hamas’s tax receipts, and having little to show for its coalition with Fatah, Hamas appears to have fallen back on its main principle of armed resistance to Israel.
The Israeli aerial barrage followed the firing of about 80 rockets out of Gaza on Monday that reached deep into southern Israel. This latest confrontation has roots in the kidnapping and murder last month of the three Israeli teenagers by men in the West Bank who Israel alleges belong to Hamas, followed by the kidnapping and murder of the Palestinian teenager, reportedly by members of an anti-Arab group of supporters of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team known as La Familia. Micky Rosenfeld, the Israeli police spokesman, and a lawyer for two of the suspects said that they did not know if that was true and that the investigation was continuing.
Witnesses and Health Ministry officials in Gaza said the first of at least five deadly Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday destroyed a car in Gaza City, killing three unidentified occupants. The second was an Israeli bomb or rocket that witnesses said had been fired by an F-16 warplane on a house in Khan Younis, a town in the southeast part of Gaza, where seven occupants were found dead in the wreckage. The kidnapping and murder of the Israeli teenagers led to an extensive crackdown by Israeli troops on Hamas in the West Bank, which in turn appeared to push Hamas to respond from Gaza, which it controls.
A telephoned warning was made to the owner of the targeted home in Khan Younis five minutes before the bombing, apparently part of the Israeli military’s stated effort to minimize unintended civilian casualties. Salah Kaware, 25, who lived in the house, said that a call came to the cellphone of his brother’s wife, and that the caller urged them to leave. As both sides tried to send political messages through military activity, the Israeli military said earlier Tuesday night that more than 150 rockets had been fired at Israel, of which at least 29 were intercepted. Israel hit some 150 targets, the military said, including five senior Hamas officials, 10 smuggling tunnels, 90 concealed rocket launchers and 18 weapon storage and manufacturing sites. One of those killed was reportedly Muhammad Shaban, a senior Hamas military officer, when a missile hit his car.
An unidentified member of Hamas was reportedly killed in a third airstrike, in an open space in central Gaza. Health officials in Gaza said at least four residents had been killed in Israeli strikes elsewhere, including Gaza City and the northern part of Gaza. Ashraf al-Qedra, a Health Ministry spokesman, said more than 90 people had been wounded since the Israeli air assaults had begun. The Palestinian authorities in Gaza said at least two teenagers were among the dead from Israeli air attacks on targets that included the car and homes of Hamas members and officials. Seven died in one house in Khan Younis, bombed after a telephoned warning.
The Israeli military said that its targets had included what it called a “terror command center embedded within civilian infrastructure” utilized by a militant in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. Ashraf al-Qedra, a Health Ministry spokesman, said that more than 100 people had been wounded in the aerial assaults. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who has condemned the murders of the Israeli teenagers, demanded that Israel immediately stop.
The air campaign comes after three weeks of escalating confrontation, with rocket attacks from Gaza against southern Israel and Israeli airstrikes on targets it has described as concealed rocket launchers, training sites and weapons manufacturing facilities associated with Hamas and other militant groups. Fury on both sides over the teenage victims of Israel-Palestinian enmity have fed the momentum. Tuesday evening, the Israeli Army said, with little detail, that it had defeated an effort to attack an army base in southern Israel by “several gunmen armed with grenades” who had approached from the sea. The army said it had killed four of the gunmen and was searching for others and released some video of the attack to Israeli television.
Al Aksa radio, run by Hamas, reported that residents received warnings a few minutes before homes were bombed. Hamas’s military wing said in an emailed statement that the bombing of the houses was “a serious escalation” that “will oblige us to enlarge our attacks deeper into Israel.” While the government authorized the army to call up another 40,000 reservists, the defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, a former chief of staff, said that the goal of Operation Protective Edge “is to bring down to zero the fire and attacks out of Gaza.” Predicting a protracted campaign, he said that “Hamas will pay a heavy price, as it has already begun paying, in order for it to understand that our citizens and soldiers are not to be fired at.”
Early on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Twitter that it had “commenced Operation Protective Edge in Gaza against Hamas in order to stop the terror Israel’s citizens face on a daily basis.” But government officials and former military officials also made it clear that Israel would prefer not to have a ground operation in Gaza, where fighting conditions are less favorable to Israel than from the air, where Israel has total supremacy. Still, troops and some tanks were gathering around the border with Gaza.
In a statement from his office, the Israeli defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, said, “Hamas is leading this current confrontation to a place in which it aspires to exact a heavy price from our home front.” The justice minister and Israeli negotiator, Tzipi Livni, said that Israel was reluctant to conduct a ground operation, but that one might be necessary. Speaking during a conference on peace organized by the Haaretz newspaper, she said, “It is our duty to provide security to the citizens of Israel, and we need to see what the right way to do this is.”
“In the last few hours we have attacked with force and struck dozens of Hamas’s assets,” Mr. Yaalon added, saying that the military was “continuing its offensive effort in a manner that will exact a very heavy price from Hamas.” He said the campaign was likely to last more than a few days. It is up to Hamas, she said. “If Hamas does not allow Israelis to live in peace, and then we too will be forced to carry out actions that we don’t fundamentally wish to perform, and that are not our primary goal.”
In a conference call with reporters, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said there would be “a gradual increase in the pressure we are putting on Hamas.” Yaakov Amidror, a former major general and national security adviser, said that Israel responded in force after Hamas had done so overnight. “If we don’t find a solution through this exchange of fire, and Hamas won’t understand what we can do, we’ll have no other choice than to do the big operation that we don’t want to do today,” he said.
Colonel Lerner said that Israel was “watching to see what the reaction is with Hamas, to see how they respond to our steps.” His comments echoed those of other officials and experts, who have suggested that the initial blitz was meant as a warning, with the hope that Hamas would rein in its fire to avoid a ground invasion. Referring to such a development, Colonel Lerner said, “I don’t see that happening immediately.” Israeli public opinion is more supportive of a major military action than the prime minister or the government, “which is more sober,” he said. “Israeli public opinion is not only behind the government, but is pushing the government.”
The hostilities erased an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that ended eight days of fierce cross-border fighting in November 2012. That came after a devastating, three-week military offensive waged by Israel with air and ground forces against militant groups in the winter of 2008-09. On Tuesday evening, Israel’s antimissile system, called Iron Dome, intercepted a rocket “over the Tel Aviv area,” the army said, showing the reach of Gazan rocketry. The rocket was believed to be of Iranian design, a Fajr-5, and Islamic Jihad claimed credit. Tel Aviv opened up some public shelters and in a city near Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, people were instructed to leave the beach.
Israeli experts often describe Israel’s periodic campaigns in Gaza in terms of “mowing the grass,” a kind of routine maintenance with the limited goals of curbing rocket fire and restoring deterrence. Critics contend such an analogy is part of what they call Israel’s policy of dehumanizing the Palestinians and their aspirations. Israeli experts often describe Israel’s periodic campaigns in Gaza in terms of “mowing the grass,” with the limited goals of curbing rocket fire, destroying as much of the militant groups’ infrastructure as possible and restoring deterrence. Critics say the use of such terminology is dehumanizing to Palestinians and tends to minimize the toll on civilians as well as militants.
“This sort of maintenance needs to be carried out from time to time, perhaps even more often,” Yoav Galant, a former commander of Israel’s southern district, including the area around Gaza, told Army Radio.“This sort of maintenance needs to be carried out from time to time, perhaps even more often,” Yoav Galant, a former commander of Israel’s southern district, including the area around Gaza, told Army Radio.
In Sderot, an Israeli town about a mile from the border with Gaza that was first hit by rockets 13 years ago, residents in an open-air market ran with their shopping bags to find shelter behind a truck or by a wall when an incoming rocket alert sounded, then went back to buying groceries. In Sderot, an Israeli town about a mile from the border with Gaza that was first hit by rockets 13 years ago, residents in an open-air market ran with their shopping bags to find shelter behind a truck or by a wall when an rocket alert sounded, then went back to buying groceries.
Limor Porin, 42, a mother of two, said she had come to shop alone after leaving her children at home close to a fortified room. “The family needs to eat,” she said, as the loud booms from Gaza shook the town. “Life is stronger than fear.” Limor Porin, 42, a mother of two, said she had come to shop alone after leaving her children at home close to a fortified room. “The family needs to eat,” she said, as loud booms from Gaza were heard. “Life is stronger than fear.”
Away from the market, the streets were empty as most people opted to stay indoors. In Gaza, as the day went on, the streets became more deserted and shops began to close. At a Gaza City hospital, Riad Mtair described an airstrike in a grove behind his home. “I looked out from the window after the smoke cleared and saw three kids lying on the ground,” he said. He brought them to the hospital and one boy died, the Health Ministry said, while the others suffered moderate injuries.
At first, radical Islamic groups that are not necessarily under Hamas’s control increased the rocket fire against Israel. By Monday, however, Hamas was taking responsibility for the attacks, which have put tens of thousands of Israelis on alert and sent them rushing into safe rooms and bomb shelters. The three-story house of the Zabout family, in the southeast part of Gaza City, was also bombed after a warning. Naji al-Zabout, 25, lived there with his son, wife, and other family members. In the afternoon, a neighbor told the Zabouts that he had received a call on his cellphone warning the family they had five minutes to leave.
Asked about the repercussions of carrying out airstrikes in Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Colonel Lerner said Hamas had created “an unacceptable, unbearable reality” for one million Israelis in the range of the rockets fired Monday. Gaza residents should understand, he said, that “this is the type of Ramadan Hamas has brought on them.” “We ran out of the house, all of us, with only what we were wearing,” Mr. Zabout said. They were about 200 yards away when a bomb turned the house into a pile of rubble. Mr. Zbout said he had no idea why it had been targeted. In Shuafat, the East Jerusalem neighborhood of the murdered Palestinian teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 350 Israelis came to the family’s mourning tent to offer condolences.
Ismail Haniya, the Gaza-based deputy chief of the Hamas movement, called early Tuesday for the Palestinians to strengthen internal unity to confront the Israeli military offensive. The family’s spokesman, Hassan Abu Khdeir, welcomed them “because we like peace, and you stand against the Satan of settlements.” But, he continued, “we stand against your government, and we don’t accept your government’s condolences.”
Hamas recently entered into a reconciliation pact with the more moderate Palestinian Authority leadership based in the West Bank, which has been urging calm. Intended to heal a seven-year split between Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the pact has resulted in a new government, but little else so far.