Israeli aircraft launched waves of attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, and Palestinian militants there pounded southern and central Israel with rocket fire, as the two sides edged closer to another round of major fighting.
(Bloomberg) — Israeli aircraft launched waves of attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, and Palestinian militants there pounded southern and central Israel with rocket fire, as the two sides edged closer to another round of major fighting.
On Tuesday, Israel carried out a surprise pre-dawn attack that killed three senior commanders of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two other militants and 10 civilians.
Life in southern Israel came to a near halt as the country awaited threatened reprisals. The rocket barrages began midday Wednesday after Israel launched an airstrike that it said was aimed at militants traveling to a rocket launching site.
More airstrikes soon followed, targeting dozens of rocket launchers and other Islamic Jihad positions, the military said.
Four Palestinians, including a child, were reported killed so far on Wednesday.
Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations — which have mediated cease-fires between Israel and Gaza fighters in the past — were in contact with Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, about the escalating violence, according to Taher al-Nunu, a spokesman for Hamas.
Israel Readies for Escalation After Attacking Gaza Militants (1)
The streets of the Gaza Strip emptied as Palestinians sought shelter from the screeching missiles.
Towns in southern Israel were evacuated, and more than 1.5 million people were hunkering in bomb shelters, military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, as the rockets stretched beyond the towns and farmlands of southern Israel to Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial hub.
Iron Dome missile defenses were operating throughout the rocket barrage, intercepting incoming projectiles.
“We are ready for the possibility of an expanded campaign and harsh strikes against Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israel embarked upon this latest campaign against Islamic Jihad after the militant group bombarded it with more than 100 rockets last week following the death via hunger strike of one of the organization’s members in an Israeli prison.
Israel has called on Gaza’s Hamas rulers to stay out of the fighting, while warning that it was prepared to enter into broader hostilities if pushed. Hagari told a news briefing that Hamas was holding its fire so far.
“The ball is in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Palestinian Militant’s Death in Israeli Jail Sparks Fighting (1)
Life in Gaza came to a standstill on Wednesday.
Schools and colleges were closed, and most businesses except banks and food stores were shuttered. At one bakery in Gaza City, dozens of people lined up to buy pita as people stocked up on supplies for fear it would become scarce in the enclave.
Access in and out of Gaza has been controlled by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over there from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007.
“The occupation government and its army bear sole responsibility for the isolation,” said Daoud Shehab, a political leader of the Islamic Jihad.
“The response to the assassination enjoys national consensus on the ground, and the Palestinian ranks are unified.”
Southern Israel has been on high alert in anticipation of the broader fighting.
Entire communities were evacuated further north, roads were blocked, and trains to the area were halted. Patients from hospitals in the south and the Tel Aviv area were moved to safer places, Israeli media reported.
A house in the southern town of Sderot was struck by rocket fire on Wednesday, but no one was inside.
Hamas’s Expanding Reach Takes War on Israel to Multiple Fronts
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are both backed by Iran, as is Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group, which like the others rejects Israel’s existence.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to encircle Israel, and warned that his military was prepared to engage in a multifront war if forced into one.
“Ninety-five percent of Israel’s security problems stem from the fanatic Iranian regime: its nuclear threat, missile threat, the ring of terrorism and aggression that Iran is trying to circle us with,” he said.
Last month, Hamas launched the biggest volley of rockets at Israel from Lebanon since the two countries last went to war in 2006.
Fighting last flared along the Gaza-Israel border in August, during three days of fighting touched off by the assassination of an Islamic Jihad leader.
For the past year, Israel has also been conducting military operations in the occupied West Bank, targeting suspected militants, many of them from Islamic Jihad.
It says the arrest raids are designed to pre-empt attacks and disrupt military operations.
More than 100 Palestinians, including dozens of militants, have been killed in the West Bank this year.
Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed at least 20 people during that time.
–With assistance from Gwen Ackerman.
(Updates with mediators discussing situation with Gaza’s Hamas rulers in third paragraph)
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