The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold through Friday, the eleventh day of Operation Protective Edge. On Thursday night, Israel launched a major ground offensive on Hamas in Gaza, initially focused on Hamas’s under-border tunnels, after a day of ceasefire efforts in Cairo. The land operation was approved unanimously by the Israeli security cabinet. Hamas, which failed with a pre-dawn terror attack from a tunnel near a border kibbutz, and fired rockets into Israel throughout the day, is vowing that Israel will pay dearly for sending in its troops. (Thursday’s liveblog is here.) Remember, you can also follow @TOIAlerts on Twitter — we’re live-tweeting all the updates there as well.
IDF blowing up tunnels throughout Gaza
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DF forces reportedly blow up multiple tunnels in the areas in which troops are operating. Helicopter gunships are firing missiles at tunnel openings and at anti-tank and rocket launching cells in the Strip.
A mosque containing a large cache of explosives was also attacked by IDF forces, the army says.
The fighting is currently going according to prepared battle plans, officials say.
Netanyahu: IDF prepared for expansion of ground op
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggests that the ground operation in Gaza may be expanded soon.
“My and the defense minister’s instruction to the IDF, after the approval of the cabinet, is to prepare for a significant expansion of the ground operation. The chief of staff and the IDF are prepared accordingly,” the prime minister says in a statement at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned Israel Friday that Gaza will become a graveyard for IDF soldiers, a day after Israel launched a ground offensive into the Strip as part of Operation Protective Edge.
“We are warning Israel against a ground war,” he told the Lebanese news outlet Al-Mayadeen TV. “This sort of operation will enable us to liberate our prisoners [through the capture of IDF soldiers and the ensuing exchange]. Gaza will be the graveyard of the occupation soldiers, and these are not slogans. Time will reveal [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s cowardice. He will pay the price.”
Asked why Hamas was unwilling to stop the rocket fire that drove the Israeli cabinet to vote for the ground operation, Abu Zuhri replied, “That sort of decision would continue the occupation for another 20 years, as Oslo did. In exchange for this blood [caused by the continued fighting], we will bring normal life to the Gaza Strip.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at length about the ground offensive in Gaza on Friday, as Operation Protective Edge against Hamas enters its eleventh day.
"This is the tenth day that Israel has had to endure terrorism on its cities and its citizens," he said. "The IDF is operating against Hamas in Gaza by sea, by air, and now by land."
"Our forces began a ground operation to harm terror tunnels that extend from Gaza to penetrate Israeli territory," he continued. "Hamas terrorists penetrated a terror tunnel like this yesterday morning in order to carry out a mass attack against Israeli civilians. The IDF worked hard to foil this terrorist operation successfully."
Netanyahu reiterated that instances like these render an air operation ineffective in fully fighting Hamas.
"Because they cannot destroy the tunnels by air, our soldiers will work from the ground," he said. "This does not guarantee a 100% success rate, but we are doing everything to eradicate the most tunnels possible."
"This is the tenth day that Israel has had to endure terrorism on its cities and its citizens," he said. "The IDF is operating against Hamas in Gaza by sea, by air, and now by land."
"Our forces began a ground operation to harm terror tunnels that extend from Gaza to penetrate Israeli territory," he continued. "Hamas terrorists penetrated a terror tunnel like this yesterday morning in order to carry out a mass attack against Israeli civilians. The IDF worked hard to foil this terrorist operation successfully."
Netanyahu reiterated that instances like these render an air operation ineffective in fully fighting Hamas.
"Because they cannot destroy the tunnels by air, our soldiers will work from the ground," he said. "This does not guarantee a 100% success rate, but we are doing everything to eradicate the most tunnels possible."
Netanyahu also emphasized that Operation Protective Edge may yet extend even further into Gaza, something the Security Cabinet is prepared to execute for the sake of eradicating Hamas - whom has left Israel with few options to defend itself.
"The decision yesterday followed Israel's agreement to Egypt's proposal to a ceasefire, as well as the UN initiative for a humanitarian truce," he noted. "In both cases Hamas continued to fire rockets."
"We chose a ground offensive after we have exhausted other options, with the understanding that without the operation, the price to pay would be much higher."
So far, 1,497 rockets were fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Of those, 1,093 hit Israel; 301 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Roughly 100 have been estimated to have struck Gaza itself, killing an untold number of Palestinian Arab civilians.
The IDF has eliminated 2,037 terror targets in Gaza.
"The decision yesterday followed Israel's agreement to Egypt's proposal to a ceasefire, as well as the UN initiative for a humanitarian truce," he noted. "In both cases Hamas continued to fire rockets."
"We chose a ground offensive after we have exhausted other options, with the understanding that without the operation, the price to pay would be much higher."
So far, 1,497 rockets were fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Of those, 1,093 hit Israel; 301 were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Roughly 100 have been estimated to have struck Gaza itself, killing an untold number of Palestinian Arab civilians.
The IDF has eliminated 2,037 terror targets in Gaza.
Jewish lawmakers said US Secretary of State John Kerry agreed to raise with President Obama the possibility of deferring congressional sanctions as leverage in nuclear talks with Iran.
Kerry met Thursday with about a dozen Jewish lawmakers to discuss a range of issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and Israel’s conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, along with the Iran talks.
Obama and Kerry had argued that existing sanctions were sufficient pressure and that new sanctions would be seen as bad faith.
Kerry suggested earlier this week that the Obama consideration may consider extending the talks beyond the July 20 deadline, saying that Iran and the major powers had made progress in the talks but that substantive gaps remained.
According to reports, Iran is resisting demands by the major powers that it dismantle most of its uranium enrichment capability and instead is pressing for an inspections regime as the central mechanism keeping it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Israel air, sea and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip Thursday night, July 17, as IDF ground forces embarked on a ground attack, just announced by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. DEBKAfile reports a softening-up operation to prepare for the entry of armored and infantry units. The IDF calls on the half million Gazans of southern towns of Khan Younes and Rafah to leave their homes for their own safety. Palestinians in northern towns reeived the same message. Israelis living close to the Gaza border were advised to stay in bomb shelters.
The IDF spokesman reported that large infantry and armored units are operating across the entire area of the Gaza Strip.
The announcement from Jerusalem said: "The prime minister and defense minister have instructed the IDF to begin a ground operation tonight in order to hit the terror tunnels from Gaza into Israel."
The IDF said: the ground attack has launched a new phase of Operation Protective Edge for striking a significant blow at Hamas in response to 10 days of attacks by land, sea and air and after repeated rejections of offers to de-escalate the situation.
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And rather than treating and quarantining patients, then sending back to their home
countries, they are preparing for a health care crisis.”
The crisis at our southern border has raised concern to Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia. The concerns of the congressman and medical doctor are so deep that he has composed a letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This should cause alarm to any reasonable and thinking American citizen.
There is all too valid cause for concern of a potential health care crisis, due to the massive numbers of illegal aliens crossing our borders. There are simply too many to adequately be checked for disease. Many of these migrants will be in our towns soon, if not already there, and in our schools. To not inform the public is irresponsible, at best.
This has created a “severe and dangerous” crisis, says the Georgia lawmaker, Phil Gingrey. Most of the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) are coming from Central America and they’re importing infectious diseases considered to be largely eradicated in this country. Additionally, many of the migrants lack basic vaccinations such as those to prevent chicken pox or measles, leaving America’s young children and the elderly particularly susceptible, Gingrey reveals.
In a hard-hitting letter to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Congressman Gingrey demands that the agency keep Americans informed about its plan to handle the growing public health crisis posed by the influx of minors. “As the unaccompanied children continue to be transported to shelters around the country on commercial airlines and other forms of transportation, I have serious concerns that the diseases carried by these children may begin to spread too rapidly to control,” the congressman writes. “In fact, as you undoubtedly know, some of these diseases have no known cure.”
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