Netanyahu Says Israel May 'Significantly Broaden' Gaza Assault
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday he had ordered the military to prepare for a possible significant expansion of the ground operation against Gaza militants.
In his first public remarks since the operation began late on Thursday, Netanyahu said air strikes alone could not deal a significant blow to the network of tunnels used by Hamas militants to stage cross-border attacks on southern Israel.
"My instructions and those of the defense minister to the military, in accordance with security cabinet's approval, is to prepare for the possibility of a significant broadening of the ground activity," he told ministers at a special cabinet session at the defense ministry in Tel Aviv.
"Last night our forces began a ground operation to hit the terror tunnels crossing from Gaza into Israel's territory," he said.
"It is not possible to deal with the tunnels only from the air (so) our soldiers are doing that also on the ground."
In his remarks, Netanyahu referred to an attempted attack on Thursday by 13 Gaza militants who managed to infiltrate southern Israel by tunnel before being spotted by the army.
One of the militants was killed in an air strike and the rest retreated into the tunnel, thwarting what Netanyahu said would have been a "mass attack" on Israeli civilians.
Netanyahu said he had only ordered the troops in after several attempts to reach a ceasefire had failed.
"We chose to launch this operation after exhausting the last options," he said.
18 July 2014, 15:21
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With Israelis, you just never know. The 1982 Big Pines Operation in Lebanon, allegedly triggered by an attack on an Israeli diplomat in London by PLO elements, was actually staged by Mossad to give pretext to an operation that Israel was then prepared to execute in Lebanon.
In Gaza, you just do not know whether the HAMAS is that stupid to provoke the Israelis and this Prime Minister, or if the Israelis were ready to degrade the HAMAS missile inventory now that Sisi is in place in Cairo and the border crossing, opened during Morsi's time is now closed, and so caused the provocation.
18 July 2014, 15:22
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And there is this other matter of the off shore oil. Is it off of Israel's shore or Palestinian with the Gaza? Already, Israel is trying to draw the international boundary lines at sea so as to capture some of the reserves that were discovered in Lebanese national waters.
Gaza with oil revenue would be a real security issue for Israel, as would Lebanon with oil revenue and with Hezbollah in control of the country. So, again, one must wonder about the timing of this operation, whether the HAMAS provoked it or whether the provocation was manufactured because of the timing and the need for Israel to act now.
