Thursday, March 24, 2011

The escalating violence in Gaza stirs fears of Israel incursion

A week of intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Palestinian rockets rain on Israel, civilian deaths in Gaza, accompanied by an increase in threats from armed groups and policy makers have woken up in the last hours of Operation Phantom Cast Lead, the Israeli incursion that left 1,400 Palestinians killed as they pass through the Gaza Strip during Christmas 2008.

Israeli aircraft launched an attack today against the northern fringe, where he claims to have destroyed an arms cache belonging to Hamas, hours after two Grad rockets fired from Gaza slammed into Israeli territory. This is the most serious clashes in the Gaza Strip two years ago and produced in a time when negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis are at a standstill for seven months and in which the international community's attention is focused in the Arab revolution.

Israeli calls for reprisals after the bombing yesterday in Jerusalem, whose responsibility is to be determined, not currently possible to predict an improvement on the military front. Several Israeli politicians yesterday launched clear threats to Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza.

"We may have to consider the repetition of that operation," said Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio, referring to Cast Lead. Tzipi Livni, the leader of the opposition, joined the chorus of war and called for "act forcefully to restore Israel's deterrent power." New attacks on Gaza on the ground, new attacks were proof that the words of politicians were not just rhetoric this time.

In the morning, Israeli planes bombed the southeast of the Strip "in order to destroy facilities from which rockets are fired." Have been repeated attacks at dawn today and, according to Hamas, has achieved several goals: smuggling tunnels to Egypt, a training ground and an electrical transformer.

Local residents say this latest incident caused power outages. The toilets, for their part, have not reported any personal injury, although Hamas has ordered the evacuation of staff from their current positions. Palestinian armed groups also resumed yesterday the launch of rockets from Gaza into Israel.

By midafternoon yesterday, 70 rockets were fired from the Gaza emerged as the count of the Army. Islamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for launching three rockets yesterday Grad-type, two of which landed in Beersheba, the great city of southern Israel, and a third near the port city of Ashdod.

Both are great cities, and are at some distance from Gaza (35 and 40 km respectively), compared to villages where the rockets hit often, closer to the Strip. One of the shots caused a minor injury. In Beersheba, schools closed and residents urged to be prepared to run to shelters as you hear the sirens.

The Jihad's armed wing has warned that plans to attack inside Israel to avenge the death of four of its militants by Israeli fire this week. "As of now there are red lines for resistance while the enemy does not respect the declarations and resolutions of United Nations and continue to kill civilians," said a spokesman for the Al Quds Brigades calls.

In the Gaza Strip yesterday lived a day of mourning following the death of eight people yesterday. Four of them were civilians and three children playing football outside his house when they were hit by Israeli fire. Eight other children were wounded, Palestinian medical sources quoted by the agency.

United Nations and France condemned the Israeli attack and the Palestinian Authority called for international intervention. The trigger for this new spiral of violence came just over a week when an Israeli airstrike killed two members of the Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. The following weekend, the Brigades released up to 50 mortar attacks on Israel.

Since then the cross-fire has not only increased. Parked attacks the incipient efforts at reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, the rival Palestinian factions since they clashed over weapons in 2007. Young Internet-driven protests were against the ropes as the Palestinian leadership, so much so that President Mahmoud Abbas, in an unprecedented gesture, announced he would visit the Gaza Strip.

The violence has also blasted the initiative.

No comments:

Post a Comment