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Israeli forces enter Gaza in ground assault after ceasefire talks fail Israeli forces enter Gaza in ground assault after ceasefire talks fail
(about 1 hour later)
Israeli tanks, infantry and engineering units – including naval special forces – launched a broad front ground assault on Gaza on Thursday, ordered by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu after last ditch attempts to secure a ceasefire deal in Cairo failed. Israeli tanks, infantry and engineering units were ordered to launch a broad front assault on Gaza on Thursday by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu as last ditch efforts to secure a ceasefire deal in Cairo collapsed.
"A large IDF force has just launched a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. A new phase of Operation Protective Edge has begun," the Israeli Defence Force announced from its Twitter account. According to the Jerusalem Post, the decision to launch the ground invasion was taken at an Israeli security cabinet meeting on Tuesday night after Hamas had rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal and after Hamas militants tried to infiltrate Israel through a tunnel from Gaza.
"Our goal is to target Hamas' tunnels that enable terrorists to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks. This requires precise operations." Netanyahu and defence minister Moshe Ya'alon then met on Thursday with the Israeli military leadership where the decision to launch the operation later that night was taken.
The opening barrage hit the eastern areas of Gaza close to the border with Israel first before moving north where it intensified. The heaviest-hit areas were a band of northern towns from Sutaniya on the coast, running through to Attatra and Salafine to Beit Lahia and Jabaliya. "In light of the despicable and relentless aggression by Hamas and the dangerous infiltration into Israel, Israel is obliged to protect its citizens," the statement said.
As the evening progressed, attacks were reported in the south of Gaza in Khan Younis and Rafah. In reply, Hamas said Israel's ground incursion into the Gaza Strip would have "dreadful consequences".
Netanyahu's office issued a statement confirming he had instructed the Israeli military to begin a ground operation, "to hit the terror tunnels from Gaza into Israel". "It does not scare the Hamas leaders or the Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "We warn Netanyahu of the dreadful consequences of such a foolish act."
A spokesperson for Hamas warned the ground invasion – the first major Israeli incursion into Gaza in more than five years – was "foolish" and there would be "dreadful consequences". As evening fell over the coastal enclave, an increasing barrage of tank fire, naval gunfire and air strikes lit up the night sky. Israeli media reported the loud rumblings of Israeli tanks and D9 bulldozers revving up their engines to cross the border.
The long-threatened assault came at the end of a five-hour humanitarian pause – observed, aside from two mortars fired from Gaza, by both sides – which had been called to allow civilians who have been under fire for ten days to stock up on food and medicine. It was the first major Israeli ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years.
Hostilities began again shortly after the pause ended at 3pm. The opening barrage hit eastern areas before moving to the north where it intensified. The heaviest hit areas were a band of northern areas from Sudaniya on the coast running through Attatra and Salateen to Beit Lahia and Jabaliya.
Shortly before the Israeli ground offensive began, electricity was cut to large areas of the north and Gaza city. A cluster of flares were also visible over Jabalibya leading to the Erez border crossing suggesting this was the route of the Israeli ground forces advance. Later in the evening, attacks were reported in the south of Gaza in Khan Younis and Rafah.
The Guardian saw artillery shells hitting these areas at a rate of 10-to-20-second intervals sending loud booms reverberating across the strip. Tracer fire was visible near Gaza port. The long threatened assault came after a five hour humanitarian pause in Gaza, observed by both sides, to allow civilians, who have been under fire for 10 days to stock up on food and medicine.
One target was the Hamas run al-Wafa hospital near Shujayi'iya in the east of Gaza city. Foreign volunteers who had installed themselves in the building as human shields called for help after the building came under rocket fire. As the assault started, electricity was cut to large areas of the north and Gaza city.
The hospital had been ordered to evacuate its 17 most severely-ill patients by Israeli armed forces – the hospital's management had refused. During the afternoon, Gaza hospital sources reported four children had been killed in Thursday's violence. A large number of flares over Jabaliya suggested that was the route of the Israeli ground forces advance.
As the barrage began, Hamas and other Islamist Palestinian factions fired rockets in response from their launch sites, including the largest in their arsenal – the R160. Strikes by the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missiles system could be seen scattering some of the rockets in bright shards across the horizon. As the barrage began, Hamas and other factions fired rockets from their launch sites, including the largest rockets in their arsenal, the R160.
Hours earlier, there were unconfirmed reports that 13 Hamas militants had attempted to launch an assault on Kibbutz Sufa near the Gaza border, having entered Israel through a tunnel dug under the border. Strikes by the Israeli Iron Dome system scattered some of the rockets in bright shards across the sky.
Foreign journalists based in beach-side hotels received phone calls from the Israeli military ordering them to evacuate their rooms and relocate to the city centre, suggesting an invasion by sea as well as by land. They were then ordered to remain inside the Al Deira hotel, metres from Gaza port, where shelling killed four children on Wednesday. One target was the Hamas run Wafa hospital near Shuyaiiya in the east of Gaza city where foreign volunteers called for help after the building came under rocket fire.
Earlier on Thursday, the IDF dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets, ordering residents to evacuate, over 14 border towns. The streets of Gaza city were empty as Palestinian residents took cover. The hospital had been ordered to be evacuated of its 17 severely ill patients on Thursday, many of them bed ridden but the hospital's management had refused.
Hamas fired 100 projectiles into Israel on Thursday. Israel shot down a drone launched from the Gaza Strip – the second of this operation – with a ground-to-air patriot missile. During the afternoon Gaza hospital sources reported that four children had been killed in the latest violence.
The UN agency for refugees, UNRWA, also said it had discovered about 20 rockets hidden in a school, which it condemned as a "flagrant violation of inviolability" of its premises. The discovery has fuelled Israel's claims that Hamas uses schools, hospitals, and mosques as cover for weapons. Lt Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said that the operation is open-ended.
Earlier, a senior Israeli government official had told the Guardian they wanted a ceasefire agreement that would restore the authority of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority (PA) was ousted from the Gaza Strip following a bitter conflict with Hamas in 2006. Hamas has been the sole authority in Gaza since June 2007, when it seized control 18 months after winning elections. Even a limited return of PA security forces would ease Hamas's grip. "We will be striking the infrastructure," he said. "We will be striking the operatives in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel especially issues to do with tunnelling, that was exemplified earlier today."
Talks in Cairo to end the conflict, in which more than 220 Palestinians – mostly civilians – have been killed, drew to a close on Thursday amid a flurry of contradictory statements and speculation. "Our forces, large ground forces accompanied by massive air force support, naval forces and intelligence, are taking over targets in Gaza, operating against tunnels and terror activists and infrastructure," Israel's chief military spokesman Brig Gen Motti Almoz said.
"We're in a really critical 24 hours," a western diplomat had told the Guardian. "If there's no ceasefire in the next two or three days, pressure will increase on Netanyahu for a ground operation." He called on Gaza residents to evacuate areas, warning the "military is operating there with very great force".
"Israel wants to see a situation that Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] is part of," the official told the Guardian. Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on 8 July to stamp out rocket attacks from Gaza and the army said the new operation will include ground and air assaults.
Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner stressed, however, that the ground operation was not intended to topple Hamas – "That is not the goal of this mission". "This stage of operation 'Protective Edge', led by the IDF's Southern Command, will include close coordination between IDF units including infantry, armoured corps, engineer corps, artillery, and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support," it said.
As the Cairo talks involving Egypt, Israel, Hamas, the PA and Tony Blair, stalled, Gamal Shobky, the PA ambassador to Egypt, told the Guardian: "I think we need more time, unfortunately. "This effort will also be supported by the Israeli Security Agency and other intelligence organisations," the army added.
"Our president [Abbas] is going to Turkey to continue the negotiations." "In the face of Hamas' tactics to leverage civilian casualties in pursuit of its terrorist goals, the IDF will continue in its unprecedented efforts to limit civilian harm," it said.
Shobky said the two main stumbling blocks were that Israel does not want to release a number of Palestinian prisoners recently recaptured after their release under a previous peace agreement, and that Israel and Egypt are reluctant to ease a blockade of Gaza that has crippled the region's economy. Thousands of Israeli soldiers had massed on the border with Gaza in recent days, waiting for the order to go in.
"These are the two key issues – the prisoners, which Israel refused, and the opening of the borders, especially at Rafah, [on the border with Egypt] and to allow for more movement on the sea, and to return farmland to Gaza." Israel had called up 48,000 reserve soldiers, and later the cabinet authorised the military to call up 18,000 more, the military said.
Hamas is demanding it be reopened – a move that would require Egypt's agreement – as part of a ceasefire deal. It has also reportedly tabled demands for access to al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for residents of Gaza. At least 240 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes since 8 July, many of them children, medics in Gaza said, with a NGO based in the coastal enclave saying 80 of the deaths are civilians.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said the Islamist Palestinian movement refused to accept the Cairo proposal "in its current form" and is seeking a series of conditions for a truce with Israel.