Gaza City, Gaza Strip • Palestinian militants
barraged Israel with more than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing three
people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant
targets across the Gaza Strip. Three rockets targeted the densely
populated Tel Aviv area, setting off air raid sirens in brazen attacks
that threatened to trigger an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground
operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with
Gaza. At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored
personnel carriers, and a number of buses carrying soldiers arrived.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to
call-up additional reservists for possible action. The army said it was
prepared to draft up to 30,000 additional troops.
"I ordered the military today to widen the
draft of reserve soldiers in order to be able to be ready for any
development," Barak said. Military officials said the moves were to
prepare for the possibility of a ground invasion, but stressed no
decision had been made. Israel TV stations, however, said a ground
offensive was expected Friday.
The fighting, the heaviest in four years, has
also killed 15 Palestinians in two days and brought life to a standstill
on both sides of the border. School has been canceled and many were
huddling indoors.
Israel and Hamas have largely observed an
informal truce for the past four years. But in recent weeks, the calm
unraveled in a bout of rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and
retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
The fighting showed no signs of slowing after
dark. Israeli aircraft carried out dozens of attacks on militant targets
in Gaza, while militants fired barrages of rockets throughout the day.
The fighting began on Wednesday after Israel killed Hamas military chief
Ahmed Jabari in an airstrike, then attacked dozens of rocket launchers.
The offensive follows weeks of rocket fire out of Gaza.
Thursday’s attacks on Tel Aviv, some of the
deepest rocket strikes from Gaza on record, set air raid sirens blaring
and sparked panic in the streets of the normally laid-back commercial
and cultural capital. Israeli Channel 2 TV showed panicked Tel Aviv
residents running for cover and lying down on the ground after the
sirens began wailing. Diners hid under tables in a restaurant, and
traffic snarled on the city’s main north-south highway. There were no
injuries.
Workers and visitors at offices in a Tel Aviv
skyscraper froze for a few seconds in silence as the sound of the sirens
wafted through the open windows.
Some murmured "I don’t believe it," but
everyone quickly and calmly rose and walked to the stairwell to go down
to the building’s bomb shelter. Many reached for their mobile phones to
call loved ones and urge them to run to a protected space, while others
kept dialing in frustration as cell networks were overloaded.
One of the rockets landed in an open area of
Rishon Lezion, a city on Tel Aviv’s southern outskirts, while police
said the other two appeared to have landed in the sea. Although there
were no injuries, Israel considers any attempt to disrupt life in Tel
Aviv to be a major escalation.
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