/ 21 December 2008

Israel weighs military offensive on Gaza

Israel weighed launching an offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday as violence simmered in the impoverished enclave days after a truce between the Jewish state and the Islamists ended.

The government of interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was debating during its weekly Cabinet meeting whether to launch major military strikes against the besieged Palestinian coastal strip.

“A responsible government is not eager to launch war but does not avoid it either, therefore we will take the necessary steps,” Olmert said as the meeting began.

Earlier, a senior Israeli defence official told Agence France-Presse that a major military confrontation in the territory was unavoidable as militants again targeted southern Israel with rockets.

“It is obvious where we are heading in Gaza. The situation is intolerable but clear. The army’s considerations are the only thing that is deciding when events will unfold,” the defence official said on condition of anonymity.

Tensions in Gaza have steadily risen since Friday, when Hamas said it would not renew a six-month truce with Israel.

Gaza militants have launched several dozen rockets, causing damage and slightly wounding a handful of civilians, and the Israeli army has carried out air strikes, killing one militant and wounding three other Palestinians.

On Sunday morning, Palestinian militants said they fired 10 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel. One scored a direct hit on a house in the hard-hit town of Sderot, lightly wounding one person, rescue services said.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli warplanes targeted rocket launchers about to fire projectiles, an army spokesperson said. No injuries were reported.

A number of key Israeli ministers have called for tough military action against Hamas in response to the violence, which comes less than two months before a general election in Israel.

“The second Israel comes under fire we should fire back intensively to reduce their capabilities,” Trade and Industry Minister Eli Yishai said, calling for retaliatory strikes against rocket launchers and for militant leaders in Gaza to be targeted.

Vice-premier Haim Ramon said that Israel must dethrone the Islamist movement that seized control in Gaza in June 2007 after ousting forces loyal to secular Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose writ today is effectively confined to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“What we want is to end the Hamas regime in Gaza,” Ramon told public radio. “The ceasefire has strengthened Hamas and weakened us both militarily and diplomatically, and therefore we must draw the conclusions and change our policy.”

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, leader of the Labour party, urged ministers to refrain from belligerent rhetoric.

“We cannot accept the situation created in Gaza. I have instructed the army and security services to prepare, but belligerent voices are harmful and unnecessary,” he said ahead of the Cabinet meeting.

Israel responded to violence that erupted in early November around Gaza by tightening sanctions and closing its crossing points with Gaza, halting deliveries of humanitarian aid and other basic supplies to the territory.

Home to 1,5-million people, Gaza has reeled from sanctions and military air strikes since 2006, following the election of Hamas and the seizure of an Israeli soldier by militants from the territory. — AFP