The Israeli army is preparing a broad ground offensive in the Gaza Strip

international | miscellaneous | other press Sunday July 17, 2005 10:20 by Palestine Solidarity

The Israeli army is preparing a broad ground offensive in the Gaza Strip

The Israeli army is preparing a broad ground offensive in the Gaza Strip

Israeli Army Prepares Broad Gaza Operation By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer
32 minutes ago



JERUSALEM - The Israeli army is preparing a broad ground offensive in the Gaza Strip and will decide in the coming hours when to launch it, Israel's deputy defense minister said Sunday, as more homemade rockets and mortars rained down on Israeli targets.








Palestinian militants have fired more than 100 projectiles at Israel since Thursday. The barrage — one of the heaviest since Israel and the Palestinians declared a truce in February — erupted less than a month before Israel intends to withdraw from Gaza and four West Bank settlements. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed the Palestinian fire would be quieted before the Gaza pullback.

Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim said Israeli officials would decide in the coming hours whether to put off the military offensive until after a snap visit this weekend by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who had changed her schedule to try to intervene in the escalating violence.

"We are going for a broad operation in Gaza. No one trusts Abu Mazen anymore. No one believes he is going to confront terrorism," Boim told Israel Radio, referring to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Israeli troops shot and killed a Hamas militant Sunday after a mortar landed in the Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, Hamas officials said. The army was checking the report. Palestinian hospital officials initially said Saed Siam, 30, was not affiliated with any of the militant groups.

Over the weekend, Israeli forces massed along the Gaza border, and troops continued to stream into the area early Sunday, Boim said.

The attacks continued Sunday morning, with two rockets and eight mortar rounds launched at Sderot, a town just over the border from Gaza that has been hit by more than 40 rockets since Thursday.

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said an Israeli incursion into Gaza "will have a disastrous impact on the disengagement plan, and all efforts to make it a successful and smooth and peaceful disengagement."

He said Abbas was committed to reining in militants, and has "zero tolerance for multiple authorities and multiple guns."

Sharon told Israel's Channel 2 TV over the weekend that the army's response to "terror acts will be strong and harsh."

"The fire will be prevented. I ordered that all steps be taken against the Islamic Jihad activists. All steps, without any restrictions," he said.

The Hamas militant group claimed responsibility for firing the majority of rockets and mortars over the weekend. But Islamic Jihad was responsible for a suicide bombing last week in the coastal city of Netanya that killed five Israelis, and for rockets fired at Sderot early Sunday.

Abbas appealed to militant groups on Saturday to halt their attacks on Israel and recommit themselves to the truce.

"I call upon all the Palestinian factions and forces to renew and to declare their commitment to what we had agreed upon, to respect the (Palestinian) Authority ... and to obey the truce," he said. "We are not going to allow anyone to gamble with our national cause," Abbas said in a televised address from his Gaza City office.

Israeli officials hope Abbas will take measures to stop the fire, and an Egyptian delegation was to arrive in Gaza Sunday to try to salvage the cease-fire.