Gaza-Israel fight escalates with sides readying next phase

Israel and Gaza-based militants are digging in for extended fighting after a barrage of hundreds of rockets and retaliatory airstrikes boiled over into a second day, threatening to undo months of Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach a long-term truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday he instructed the army to continue its “massive attacks” in Gaza, and to bolster forces near the coastal strip. Meanwhile, militant groups threatened to send rockets deeper into Israel and to ruin the Eurovision song contest that Israel is set to host later this month, a prime tourist draw. Israel’s security cabinet met yesterday to discuss the flareup.

“They thought that because it’s before the Memorial Day of Israel and the Independence Day of Israel and the Eurovision which is in a week or two in Israel, Israel will not retaliate, but it was a huge mistake,” former Israeli National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror said on a press briefing. Israel marks its memorial and independence days this week.

Ten Palestinians, including at least six militants, and an Israeli man have been killed since lower-level fighting erupted on Friday. A Palestinian baby and her pregnant mother were among the dead, with Gaza officials blaming Israel and an Israeli military spokesman saying they were killed by rockets fired from Gaza that fell short.

LOW BOIL

Gaza militant groups, who had sought to trade longer-term quiet for an influx of aid to the impoverished territory, have accused Israel of not honoring commitments under a previous cease-fire. They’ve also pledged to be an obstacle to the Trump administration’s peace plan, which is expected to be presented next month.

For more than a year, Hamas has been sponsoring weekly protests at the border designed to draw attention to the Palestinians’ plight and deflect popular anger over Gaza’s crushing poverty away from its own failures and onto Israel. Gaza has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since the Hamas takeover, and ies imposed by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, have intensified Gaza’s distress.

Despite repeated rocket attacks over the past year, the Israeli government has refrained from the sort of full-scale wars with Gaza it’s waged three times since Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union, seized control of the strip in 2007. But Israel’s deterrent capabilities have been eroded as militants take more risks amid the deepening humanitarian crisis, and the Israeli government has little appetite to reoccupy the enclave 14 years after withdrawing all troops and Jewish settlements from the area.

Israeli officials have said their priority is to confront Iran’s attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria, on Israel’s northern border. To keep tensions with Gaza in check, Netanyahu agreed several months ago to allow infusions of tens of millions of Qatari dollars to flow to the territory of nearly 2 million people. Opposition leader Benny Gantz – a former military chief and Netanyahu’s main rival in Israel’s recent election – has likened that arrangement to paying protection money to a mafia.

LATEST FIGHTING

Schools were closed on both sides of the border, and Gaza City streets were empty on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. Israel sent troop reinforcements and is mobilizing an armored brigade for contingencies, and limits were placed on large gatherings.

Tensions began rising Friday afternoon when a sniper backed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group shot two Israeli soldiers, and two protesters and two militants were killed by Israeli fire.

Rocket bombardments began Saturday morning, with about 450 rockets fired by midday yesterday. More than 100 were intercepted by missile defense batteries. Ivan Levingston & Saud Abu Ramadan, Bloomberg