Israeli aircraft blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities and other militant targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Sunday, at the launch of what the military said would be a ”prolonged” offensive against Hamas militants for bombarding
Israeli towns with rockets.
The offensive in Gaza dashed hopes that Israel’s recently completed Gaza withdrawal would help restart peace talks and left a seven-month-old ceasefire on the brink of collapse. The fighting also raised already intense pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to confront militants.
In a further sign the truce was unraveling, the military arrested 207 Palestinian wanted men in the West Bank overnight, most of them members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements. The military has conducted sweeping arrests of Islamic Jihad militants since the February ceasefire, but this is the first time it has detained large numbers of Hamas members.
Among those arrested were Hassan Yousef and Mohammed Ghazal, two of the most prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank, Hamas officials said.
A group of senior Israeli Cabinet officials, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, approved the military operation in Gaza at an emergency meeting late on Saturday after Hamas militants fired nearly 40 rockets from Gaza at southern Israeli towns.
The rocket barrage, which slightly wounded six Israelis, was the Islamic group’s first major attack since Israel concluded its Gaza pull-out last week.
”It was decided to launch a prolonged and constant attack on Hamas,” said Major General Yisrael Ziv, the army’s head of operations, hinting that Israel was preparing to resume its assassination of top Hamas leaders, a practice suspended after the February ceasefire. Asked whether the leaders were in danger, he said: ”Let them decide for themselves.”
Israel killed dozens of Hamas leaders, including the group’s founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, during more than four years of violence.
Ziv later told Army radio that a ground operation wasn’t being planned yet, but if one is deemed necessary, ”then we won’t refrain”.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said ”the Israeli bombing in Gaza and the arrests in the West Bank lead to one direction, and that’s the collapse of the ceasefire, which serves no side’s interest”.
Erekat called on United States President George Bush to work to calm the conflict ”so we can sustain the cessation of violence”.
The crisis erupted ahead of a major challenge to Sharon’s leadership of the hardline Likud Party and could strengthen the hand of Sharon’s main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who cautioned that the Gaza pull-out would encourage militant attacks. A Likud vote on Monday could determine whether Sharon quits the party — a move likely to bring early elections and lead Sharon to form a new
centrist party to capture mainstream voters.
Israeli security officials said ”Operation First Rain” would include artillery fire, air strikes and other targeted attacks. The operation will grow in intensity, leading up to a ground invasion in several days unless Abbas’s Palestinian Authority halts the
rocket attacks or Hamas ends them itself, officials said.
A ground operation would require final approval from the full Cabinet, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicise the operation’s details.
The air strikes on Sunday morning hit targets throughout Gaza, including three weapons-storage facilities and a Gaza City school that the military said Hamas used to raise funds for attacks, recruit militants and assist families of suicide bombers.
Nineteen people were slightly wounded in the attacks, and facilities were heavily damaged.
Israeli military officials said the attacks were aimed at any group possessing weapons, and other small groups were targeted. But the offensive was focused on Hamas, the largest Palestinian militant organisation.
In tandem with the air strikes, large numbers of ground forces deployed near northern Gaza, the launching area for most Palestinian rocket attacks. And in an unprecedented step, Israel set up five artillery cannon elsewhere on the border. In the past, Israel has retaliated against Palestinian rocket fire with air strikes or ground incursions. Artillery fire is imprecise, and could cause many casualties if fired into densely populated Gaza.
The chain of events began on Friday afternoon, with an explosion at a Hamas rally in Gaza’s crowded Jebaliya refugee camp, in which at least 15 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded.
Hamas blamed Israel for that blast, and said its rocket attacks on Israeli towns were meant as retaliation. However, the Palestinian Authority held the Islamic militants responsible, saying weapons were mishandled.
On Saturday, Israel responded to the barrage of Hamas rockets with air strikes, killing two local Hamas field commanders in their cars and signaling a resumption of targeted killings.
Hamas, vowing vengeance, called on its militants in a statement to strike Israel ”in every spot of our occupied land.” At least four more rockets fell in Israel after the air strike on Saturday.
Israel indefinitely sealed the West Bank and Gaza on Saturday, barring thousands of Palestinians from jobs in Israel. – Sapa-AP