The Israeli military lifted its restrictions along the Gaza border Sunday, indicating it had accepted an Egypt-mediated cease-fire that ended a 24-hour round of fighting with Hamas militants that had threatened to devolve into all-out war.
The military had shut down a popular beach and placed limitations on large gatherings as residents kept mostly close to home on Saturday amid dozens of rockets that were fired from Gaza. But after several hours of calm it said residents could resume their daily routines.
On Saturday, the military carried out its largest wave of airstrikes in Gaza since the 2014 war, hitting several Hamas military compounds and flattening a number of its training camps. Two Palestinian teenagers were killed in an airstrike in Gaza City, while four Israelis were wounded from a rocket that landed on a residential home.
The military said several mortar shells were fired even after Hamas announced the cease-fire as sirens warning of incoming projectiles wailed in Israel overnight again. The military struck the mortar launcher early Sunday but the calm held, with neither side appearing eager to resume hostilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not accept a cease-fire unless it included an end to all militant hostilities, including incendiary kites and balloons from Gaza that have devastated nearby Israeli farmlands and nature reserves.
"The Israeli military has delivered its most punishing blow against Hamas since the 2014 war. I hope they got the message. If not, they will get it later on," he said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
After several balloons drifted into Israel Sunday, the military said it targeted the Hamas squad that had launched them from the northern Gaza Strip.
Hamas police also announced an explosion Sunday at a house in Gaza City that killed a father and son, aged 35 and 13. The explosion appeared to be an accidental blast related to militant stock piles of explosives. Hamas said it would investigate.
Many Israelis have characterized the government's response to ongoing "terror kite" attacks from Gaza as flaccid, at best.
So, when Hamas and its allies upped the ante by lobbing no fewer than 174 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel at the weekend, there was some hope that the Israeli army would finally get a green light to take real action.
The Israel Air Force did bomb a number of Hamas and Islamic Jihad installations, but it's the kind of damage from which the terror groups quickly recover.
Israelis want the threat eliminated completely, and see the ceasefire agreed to by the government on Saturday evening as a bandaid on a festering wound.
The constant fear of having to run for bomb shelters at any moment "is ruining our lives," a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza told Israel's Mako news portal.
The government argued that the return of relative quiet to the area known as the "Gaza envelope" should silence the residents' grumbling.
In an interview with the Ynet news portal, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz insisted that it was Israel's "strong response" to the rocket fire over the weekend that compelled Hamas to seek a ceasefire. "We will not accept any acts of terror against us," Steinitz said, stressing that additional attacks on southern Israel would be dealt with harshly.
But the mayor of Sderot, the Negev town most often hit by Gaza rockets, warned that the manner in which the weekend's violence was resolved had put Hamas, not Israel, in the driver's seat.
"We are not pleased with this ceasefire," Mayor Alon Davidi told Mako. "It is Hamas, not Israel, that's deciding when to escalate and when to back down. I call upon the prime minister and his cabinet to come down to the south and hear from the residents what life is like here."
Mayor Davidi's criticism was echoed by Education Minister Naftali Bennett.
"Allowing Hamas to dictate the terms of the ceasefire after two months of arson attacks and hundreds of rockets on the residents of Gaza border communities is a serious mistake," read a statement released by Bennett. "Showing restraint creates an escalation in violence."
Indeed, as Bennett concluded, the greatest fear of the residents of southern Israel is that their government's policies have committed them to a "long war of attrition."
Throughout the day on Saturday and the early morning hours of Sunday, Israel struck a wide range of terrorist targets in the Gaza strip responding to incessant rocket and mortar fire emanating from the coastal enclave over the weekend, the IDF spokesperson reported.
Among the targets on Saturday were the headquarters of Hamas's Beit Lahiya Battalion, with jets striking urban warfare training facilities, weapon storage warehouses, training compounds, command centers and offices as well as a high-rise building in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza city.
Among the targets on Saturday were the headquarters of Hamas's Beit Lahiya Battalion, with jets striking urban warfare training facilities, weapon storage warehouses, training compounds, command centers and offices as well as a high-rise building in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza city.
“The battalion command’s entire infrastructure has been destroyed, vaporized, turned into a giant hole,” Israeli military spokesman Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis said concerning the first of the two targets.
“This attack displays the IDF’s advanced intelligence and operational capabilities and could expand as needed and in accordance with a situational assessment.”
The second target, the high-rise building in the Shati refugee camp, supposedly served as the "Palestinian National Library" and was located in the south of the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. Its five floors were intended to be used for public and government services. However, the structure was converted into a training facility for Hamas battalions which was used as an urban warfare training facility and had a tunnel underneath for underground warfare training.
“This attack displays the IDF’s advanced intelligence and operational capabilities and could expand as needed and in accordance with a situational assessment.”
The second target, the high-rise building in the Shati refugee camp, supposedly served as the "Palestinian National Library" and was located in the south of the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. Its five floors were intended to be used for public and government services. However, the structure was converted into a training facility for Hamas battalions which was used as an urban warfare training facility and had a tunnel underneath for underground warfare training.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman spoke at the start of a cabinet meeting about the latest escalation in the Gaza Strip and the possibility of continued kite terrorism under the auspices of the ceasefire reported last night.
"There is no intention to contain rockets or kites and anything," Liberman said. "I hope that Hamas will draw conclusions, and if they do not, they will have to pay a heavy price."
This morning, Sunday, ministers Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Katz criticized the government's policy vis-à-vis the Hamas terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.
"There is no intention to contain rockets or kites and anything," Liberman said. "I hope that Hamas will draw conclusions, and if they do not, they will have to pay a heavy price."
This morning, Sunday, ministers Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Katz criticized the government's policy vis-à-vis the Hamas terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip.
Minister Bennett said at the cabinet meeting, "For three months, we have been witness to incendiary terror of about 1,000 balloons on residents of the Gaza vicinity. In recent days alone, the residents of the south absorbed about 200 rockets. In timing that is convenient for it, Hamas dictates that there will now be a ceasefire.”
"Let it be clear: a ceasefire without stopping terror is not a deterrent - it is surrender. I and the justice minister [Ayelet Shaked] will oppose any ceasefire that allows Hamas to rearm and continue to fire balloons at the residents of the south. The time has come to act,” he added.
"Let it be clear: a ceasefire without stopping terror is not a deterrent - it is surrender. I and the justice minister [Ayelet Shaked] will oppose any ceasefire that allows Hamas to rearm and continue to fire balloons at the residents of the south. The time has come to act,” he added.
Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) added that he expects Defense Minister Liberman to present the cabinet with a proposal for a clear policy vis-a-vis Gaza.
"The collapse of Hamas and the elimination of terror, or separation from all civilian responsibility and the creation of a boundary line with full deterrence - as with Syria and Lebanon. There is no option of continuing in the current situation. It is not fair to the residents of the Gaza vicinity and harms the security of the State of Israel," Katz said.
Syrian rebels and their relatives began evacuating the southern city of Daraa on Sunday under a deal to bring the “cradle” of the country’s uprising back under government control.
The highly symbolic transfers came as Russian-backed government forces advanced in the neighboring province of Quneitra, with airstrikes pounding rebel positions perilously close to the Israeli border.
After securing Damascus in May, President Bashar Assad turned his attention to rebels in the strategically vital south, where protests against his rule first erupted seven years ago.
Nearly three weeks of bombardment saw beleaguered rebels agree with Russia earlier this month to hand over Daraa province, before reaching a similar deal for its capital this week.
In recent days, rebels have handed over heavy-duty arms and other equipment to government forces who entered the city’s rebel-held southern districts for the first time in years to plant the national flag.
On Sunday, rebels and civilians who did not want to live under regime control were granted safe passage to opposition-held Idlib in Syria’s northwest.
Hundreds of fighters and some of their relatives, carrying suitcases packed with clothes, boarded around 15 buses in Daraa city, AFP’s correspondent there said. The vehicles, parked on a main thoroughfare connecting the city’s government-held north with its rebel-held south, were searched by Russian forces before setting off just after midday for Idlib.
Syrian state television also said the transfers had begun, broadcasting images of white buses they said were carrying the fighters, their blue curtains drawn, surrounded by military forces.
The Israel Defense Forces launched a series of exercises throughout the country on Sunday, including one in southern Israel that will reportedly simulate the conquering of Gaza City, following a daylong flareup with the Hamas terror group over the weekend in which some 200 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel.
“Beginning in the morning, a number of military exercises will begin throughout the country, which are expected to finish up toward the end of the week,” the military said.
The IDF said Israelis can expect to see “increased movement by security forces, vehicles and aircraft” while the drills are taking place.
The Walla news site reported that one such exercise, led by the 162nd Armored Division, would focus on the capture of Gaza City in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military would not fully confirm the report, but said that the 162nd Division would be taking part in an exercise “that would simulate a southern layout, which will of course include ‘conquering’ drills.”
The IDF stressed that this exercise and the others taking place this week were not connected to the weekend flareup and had been planned well in advance “as part of the annual training program.”
Over the course of approximately 24 hours Saturday, southern Israel and the Gaza Strip saw one of the largest exchanges of fire since the 2014 Gaza war.
No comments:
Post a Comment