[ad_1]
Israel said that after five days of relentless bombing against Palestinian militant groups, Israel said it had deployed ground forces to attack Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israeli armed groups fired more than 1,500 rockets to the Jewish state.
The IDF said in a statement: “The IDF air and ground forces are currently launching an offensive in the Gaza Strip.” A military spokesperson later clarified that no Israeli forces had entered Gaza.
However, the deployment of ground forces in the operation marked an escalation in the five-day conflict and triggered questions about whether Israel plans to invade for the first time since the conflict in 2014 killed 2,000 Palestinians and 72 Israelis.
Since militant groups took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel and Hamas have fought three wars.
According to health officials in the Gaza Strip, Israel has launched air strikes against militants in Gaza for five consecutive days, killing 103 Palestinians, including 38 women and children. A total of 580 people were injured.
Despite the bombing, Hamas continued to fire rockets deep into Israel and on Thursday diverted the Israeli authorities to international flights from Tel Aviv. The militants killed seven Israelis this week, including a soldier and a child.
Early Friday, Israeli air strikes hit northern Gaza ©AFP via Getty Images
Israel has deployed additional troops near the border with Gaza, including two infantry brigades and an armored unit, and called on 9,000 reserve personnel on Thursday. The military has previously stated that it is considering all situations, including potential ground operations.
A Western diplomat said that Egyptian officials are trying to bring about a ceasefire without letting up in the violent conflict. The U.S. State Department’s highest official in charge of Israeli and Palestinian affairs, Hady Amr, is also on his way to Israel. The Biden administration tries to ease the escalation of the crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken told reporters on Thursday that Washington is making deep efforts to reduce the escalation of the situation. Russian President Vladimir Putin and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also called for an end to the fighting on Thursday. But Western diplomats said Israel had previously rejected Egypt’s efforts to stop the fighting, which borders Israel and Gaza.
Israel had previously invaded Gaza during the war with Hamas in 2009 and 2014, and its actions destroyed this impoverished Mediterranean region. The conflict killed more than 1,000 and 2,000 Palestinians, respectively. However, Hamas has been able to maintain a large arsenal of homemade rockets. Since the 2014 war, Israel has been reluctant to send troops into Gaza because of concerns about the kidnapping of its soldiers and other risks associated with such operations.
Israel has been stepping up its campaign against Hamas because the country has escaped its worst community violence in years.
Violence between Israeli Jews and a handful of Israeli Arabs broke out in several Israeli towns and cities this week, shaking the country and opening up the domestic front, leading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to vowed to use “force” , With great force” to suppress the riots.
For more than a decade, the Arab-Israeli conflict has been dominated by fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian factions in the occupied territories, but community violence has increased the dangerous situation and put pressure on the Israeli government.
Israeli Arabs make up about one-fifth of the population of the Jewish state, carry Israeli passports, and vote in the country’s elections. But they complained about institutional and social discrimination, and their sympathy for the Palestinian cause made them a target for right-wing politicians.
When Netanyahu delivered a speech on Thursday night in the city of Rhodes, which has suffered from some of the worst community violence, Netanyahu vowed to cooperate with Shin Bet. The intelligence agencies worked together to let the security agencies use force to suppress the riots, telling them not to worry about the “Investigation, Investigation and Inspection Committee.”
He said: “You have support, don’t worry.” “When you put down the rioters, you need to use force, you need to use a lot of force.” He said that he is considering approving the use of administrative detention and including it in the army, which is usually in detention. The occupied West Bank was used to detain Palestinians for long periods of time without a lawyer.
Israel further stated that the crisis is increasing. It stated that three rockets were fired from Lebanon to northern Israel on Thursday, which heralded another danger of opening the frontier. The Israeli military said that the rocket landed in the Mediterranean without causing any damage.
It is unclear who fired the rocket, and the northern border between Israel and Lebanon has been quiet in recent months. Lebanon is the seat of Hezbollah. Hezbollah, a movement supported by Iran, fought a month-long war with Israel and Palestine refugees and militants in 2006. A Lebanese military official said that the situation regarding the rocket is unclear. He dismissed local media reports about the arrest of Palestinians.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifiel, said its head of mission, Major General Stefano del Cole, has engaged in dialogue with the Lebanese Army and the Israel Defense Forces, urging to be demoted after the recent rocket attack. A Hezbollah spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[ad_2]
Source link
