Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com & Marissa Newman / The Times of Israel & Agence France-Presse – 2014-03-13 00:32:33
Israel Vows ‘No Restraint,’ Pounds Gaza Strip
Jason Ditz / AntiWar.com
(March 12, 2014) — Israeli military leaders vowed “no restraint” today in a new offensive against the Gaza Strip, pounding targets across the site, including sites near the Rafah border crossing.
Israel claimed 29 sites hit in Gaza and considerable damage, though there have been no confirmed Palestinian casualties. Israeli officials claimed more than 50 rockets fired at southern Israel from Gaza as the pretext, though only two rockets actually landed anywhere near any residential areas, and of those only one caused “light damage.”
Gaza rockets aren’t so rare, but one hitting something is. The Israeli government was virtually inconsolable about the “barbaric” strike, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for a full scale military conquest of the entire strip.
The latest escalation along Gaza is the largest since November of 2012, when Israel was on the verge of another invasion. Israeli hawks have vowed to continue their strikes on Gaza this time.
Israeli Aircraft Hit Targets in
Gaza after Rocket Attacks
29 Islamic Jihad and Hamas sites targeted; US calls heavy barrage on southern Israel ‘reprehensible,’ UK’s Cameron says it’s ‘barbaric’
Marissa Newman / The Times of Israel
(March 12, 2014) — The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday in retaliation for a massive rocket barrage earlier in the day, the largest of its kind since 2012.
Israeli planes struck 29 targets in the Strip, the army said in a statement. Palestinians said at least five strategic points were hit in the coastal enclave, primarily in areas around the cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
Israel had warned that it would hit back hard at Gaza terror groups, after more than 50 rockets were fired at southern Israel.
Among the IAF targets were bases of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, which had claimed the rocket attacks, and Hamas throughout the Gaza Strip, Palestinian witnesses said. No Palestinian casualties were initially reported. Earlier, IDF tanks fired shells at targets in the Strip.
“All of our planes safely returned to their bases,” the IDF said in a statement. “The attack was carried out in retaliation for the massive ballistic bombardment of Israeli territory this evening. The IDF will not abide any attempt to harm Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers, and will continue to act decisively against anyone who employs terrorism against the State of Israel.”
Israeli military sources said after the late-night retaliatory strikes that Israel would now wait to see how Hamas and Islamic Jihad responded. If there were no further rocket attacks on Israel, the current flare-up would be over. But if there was more rocket fire, Israel would again respond.
As of late Wednesday night, the Israeli authorities had not canceled school for children in the south Thursday.
Although the rocket fire from Gaza subsided late in the evening, Israel raised its security alert in the south, and residents were told to stay within 15 seconds of rooms reinforced against rockets, amid indications that the dramatically escalated new round of confrontation was not over.
At least two rockets from Gaza fell in residential areas, one of them causing light damage in Sderot. There were no direct injuries, but a Sderot woman, aged 57, was lightly hurt as she ran for cover.
“If there is no quiet in our south, no quiet for the residents of Israel, there will be noise, lots of noise in Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a joint press conference with his British counterpart, David Cameron. “And that’s putting it mildly.”
Cameron called the rocket strikes on Israel “barbaric.”
The US State Department decried the barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, referring to it as “reprehensible,” and stressing that Israel reserves the right to protect its citizens.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms today’s rocket attacks into Israel by terrorists from the Gaza Strip,” read a statement from spokeswoman Jen Psaki.
“There is no justification for such attacks. We call for these terrorist attacks to cease immediately. Israel, like any nation, has a right to defend itself.”
The Islamic Jihad terror group took credit for the attacks — the worst since November 2012 — saying they were a retaliation for Israel’s killing of three of its operatives on Tuesday and that they signaled the start of an ongoing campaign.
Adiv Sterman and AFP contributed to this report.
Israel Must ‘Reoccupy’ Gaza: Lieberman
Agence France-Presse
(March 12, 2014) — Israel must stage a full reoccupation of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip after militants there fired more than 50 rockets over the border, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday.
“Following an attack like this — a barrage of more than 50 rockets — there is no alternative to a full reoccupation of the entire Gaza Strip,” he told Israel’s private Channel 2 television.
Israel withdrew all troops and Jewish settlers from Gaza in summer 2005 but maintained a siege on 1.7 million Palestinians in the enclave since 2007.
This story was edited by Ahram Online
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
