Defies International Pressure for Immediate Cease-fire
Israel’s leaders said they were escalating the military campaign in Gaza and told the country to prepare for a prolonged operation, defying international demands for an immediate cease-fire after Hamas militants broke a Muslim holiday lull.
The military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, said Israel’s assault on Gaza’s Hamas rulers was being “intensified” after three weeks of fighting that have cost more than 1,100 lives.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised address, gave no sign the military would go beyond its stated goals—degrading Hamas’s rocket arsenal and finding and destroying a network of cross-border tunnels that fighters use to infiltrate Israel. According to officials, the military needs about another week to accomplish that.
“We will not finish the mission, we will not finish the operation, without neutralizing the tunnels, which have the sole purpose of annihilating our citizens and killing our children,” the prime minister said. He told Israelis to brace for a prolonged fight.
As he spoke, the military sent messages instructing thousands of Palestinians living on the outskirts of Gaza City to leave their homes and take shelter in the city center—an apparent prelude to an assault on suspected Hamas positions in civilian neighborhoods.
Later, flares lighted up the midnight sky over Gaza City, accompanied by repeated explosions that rattled windows.
There had been a brief lull in fighting from Sunday afternoon as Israel eased up on strikes for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which began on Monday.
But Mr. Netanyahu ordered a resumption of attacks after Hamas struck two military targets inside Israel on Monday, lobbing a mortar that killed four soldiers at a makeshift base 4 miles from the Gaza border and popping up from a cross-border tunnel to open fire on a military patrol. The military said it killed five militants in a firefight at the tunnel opening.
In Gaza City, two blasts shook a residential neighborhood called Beach Camp, killing eight children and two adults, Gaza’s health ministry said. Both Israel and Hamas denied responsibility. Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli airstrike. Israel’s military released an aerial photo diagram purporting to show the paths of four rockets fired from Gaza, with one of them landing at Beach Camp.
Hamas responded defiantly to Mr. Netanyahu’s comments.
Empty shells lie on the ground next to an Israeli Merkava tank at an unspecified location near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on Monday. European Pressphoto Agency
“His threats do not scare Hamas or the Palestinian people,” said Samy Abu Zohry, a spokesman for the Islamist group that governs Gaza. “The [Israeli] occupation will pay the price for the massacres against civilians and children.”
Mr. Netanyahu and the Hamas leadership each appear to have strong support at home for continuing the fight. But the mounting death toll has put both under international pressure to cease fire and negotiate a deal that would ease severe restrictions by Egypt and Israel on Gaza’s borders while guaranteeing Israel’s security.
The Gaza health ministry said 1,079 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began on July 8. Most were civilians, according to the United Nations and Palestinian officials. Forty-eight Israeli soldiers have died and three civilians have been killed by rocket fire in Israel, the military said.
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