Israel set to begin ground war against Hamas in Gaza - Gaza rockets put Israel’s nuclear plant in battle zone

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Israel set to begin ground war against Hamas in Gaza
James Hider on the Gaza border, and Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem

Israel is poised to launch a major ground offensive into Gaza tonight after allowing hundreds of foreigners living in the devastated territory to evacuate.

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Soldiers greet each other as the arrive on the Israeli border near Gaza - photo

After a week of air strikes that have killed at least 420 Palestinians and left scores of buildings in rubble, the Israeli army was set to fling hundreds of troops and tanks into a blitz to stamp out Hamas’s military wing, The Times understands.

Despite the looming onslaught, more Hamas rockets – which have so far killed four Israelis – were fired into southern Israel today.

The Islamist group vowed that its attacks, which have lasted for years and which finally provoked the massive Israeli campaign, would not stop.

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Attacks continue as foreigners are allowed to leave the besieged territory - slideshow


“I call on the resistance to continue pounding Jewish settlements and cities,” said Sheikh Abdelrahman al-Jamal at the funeral of a hardline Hamas political leader killed, together with his four wives and 11 children, in an Israeli air strike on his home.

“We will remain on the path of jihad until the end of days.”

The funeral was held outdoors because an earlier air raid had smashed the mosque where the service was due to take place. Israel said the building had been used to stockpile weapons.

Among the mounting Palestinian death toll today were three young brothers, aged between seven and 10, who were killed in one of the 30 or so strikes carried out by Israeli warplanes across the strip.

All along the border, Israeli tanks and troops have turned fields into makeshift camps from which to launch their offensive into Gaza. The Government has already mobilised more than 6,000 reserve troops and has given the green light to call up almost 3,000 more.

Artillery barrages were also being fired into the strip while aircraft dropped bombs on open ground that the army will need to cross, and where Hamas has placed mines and dug tunnels to allow its guerrillas to outflank the invaders.

Support for Operation Cast Lead is sky high in Israel, with polls showing that almost 85 per cent of the public backing the campaign.

There is also majority support for expanding it into a ground campaign, despite the dangers of high casualties in an urban battlefield against highly trained and motivated guerrillas waging war on their own turf. Almost 42 per cent of Israelis wanted the army to move in, while 39 percent favoured a continued air campaign.

Hamas has an estimated 15,000 fighters who have used the 18 months that they have controlled the strip to hone their skills and transform a militia into a small army. Hamas’s military wing has been waiting for a ground offensive to face the Israeli army in open combat, despite Israel’s vast military superiority.

The onslaught has provoked large anti-Israeli demonstrations around the world, with protest rallies held today in India, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia.

But Hamas’s call for a “day of wrath” in the Palestinian territories produced only a lukewarm response in the face of clampdowns by Israeli security forces.

Several thousand protesters marched through the West Bank city of Ramallah, while in East Jerusalem youths threw stones at Israeli security forces and some 50 women demonstrated outside the Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque.

The demonstrators directed their anger principally at their own Palestinian leaders, and heads of Arab countries whom they felt had not done enough to stop Israel’s seven-day incursion into Gaza.

“Abbas is with the Jews, not with the Arabs. If he really was supporting and working in favour of our Arab brother’s in Gaza, this wouldn’t have happened,” said Um-Mahr, a 66-year-old resident of East Jerusalem.

Akram Jwaeibis, 58, said Arab leaders today were afraid to do more than voice criticism of the Israeli government’s actions. “Most of them just talk. That is why we are waiting for Nasrallah. Or Haniyeh to do something more than talk.”

Diplomatic efforts to contain the crisis were growing after Israel’s surprise offensive in the days after Christmas caught the world off guard. “We are working toward a ceasefire that would not allow a re-establishment of the status quo ante where Hamas can continue to launch rockets out of Gaza,” said Condoleezza Rice, the outgoing US Secretary of State.

“It is obvious that that ceasefire should take place as soon as possible, but we need a ceasefire that is durable and sustainable,” she said.

A high-level European delegation is due in the region at the weekend, as were Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, and Tony Blair, the international community’s envoy to the Middle East.

Gaza rockets put Israel’s nuclear plant in battle zone
James Hider in Beersheba

Growing concern over Hamas’s new arsenal

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00458/dimona_458082... - photo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5434...

There were growing fears in Israel last night that Hamas missiles could threaten its top-secret nuclear facility at Dimona.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have forced Israelis to flee in ever greater numbers and military chiefs have been shaken by the size and sophistication of the militant group’s arsenal.

In Beersheba, until a few days ago a sleepy desert town in southern Israel, there is little sign of the 186,000 inhabitants. Schools are closed and the streets of shuttered shops echo with the howl of sirens warning of incoming rockets.

Israeli planes, meanwhile, began a new stage yesterday in their offensive on Gaza, killing Nizar Rayyan, a senior Hamas official. The one-tonne bomb in Jabaliya is also understood to have killed two of his four wives and four of his twelve children. More than 400 Palestinians have been killed in the six days of Israeli attacks.

Despite a diplomatic mission by Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, to Paris, the Israeli army continued to muster thousands of troops and scores of tanks along Gaza’s border for a possible ground offensive. Israel’s airstrikes are designed to blunt Hamas’s capacity to fire its new Grad missiles deep into its territory. The weapons are smuggled in through tunnels and by sea, replacing homemade Qassam rockets.

Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

“Maybe Hamas will get a big present from Iran or Hezbollah, a few good long-range missiles and they’ll use it,” said Limor Brina, 40, a jeweller who is learning the lessons of life under rocket threat: she sleeps with her clothes on and heads to a shelter whenever the siren sounds.

Israel’s worst nightmare is that soon all its cities will be within range either of the Hezbollah Katyushas arrayed on the Lebanese border to the north or the increasingly sophisticated missiles stockpiled by Hamas to the south. Both groups have links to Israel’s archenemy Iran.

Israel has said that its aim is to smash Hamas’s rocket-firing capability but also to topple the hardline Islamist regime that seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007 after bloody street battles with its secular rivals Fatah. Until that goal is achieved, many in Beersheba are packing their bags and heading for Tel Aviv or Eilat.

“Maybe 30 or 40 per cent of people have left the city,” said Ron Shukron, 26, running one of the few grocery shops still open. As he spoke a siren echoed through the empty streets. With only 15 seconds to take cover, he stepped under a reinforced support beam in the ceiling. Seconds later came the dull thud of a rocket exploding on the edge of town.

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