WarSclerotic

Liberman: Don’t End IDF Op. Without Retaking Gaza – Inside Israel – News – Arutz Sheva.

First Publish: 7/15/2014, 5:22 PM

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman repeated his calls for Israel to retake the Gaza Strip Tuesday, stating that Operation Protective Edge should not stop until the entire territory is under full Israeli control.

“We returned every last meter to the ’67 lines in the Gaza Strip,” said Liberman, referring to the 2005 Disengagement Plan, during which the entire Jewish community of Gaza was expelled. “We evacuated all the settlements and all the residents and handed it over to Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas].”

In response, Israel received a massive escalation in the intensity and range of rocket fire against civilians in southern and even central Israel, as Hamas took control in Gaza.

“What do we do now?” he asked rhetorically. “Can we just go back to the normal routine?”

“We need to end the operation (only) once the IDF controls the entire Gaza Strip. There is no other way than this to deal with terror.”

Referring to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire proposal – which was rejected by Hamas – Liberman said that even if the Islamist group and its allies eventually changed their minds and accepted it, such an arrangement would simply ensure the next round of fighting in the near future, as occurred after ceasefires in 2009 and 2012.

“This ceasefire will, all in all, be a preparation for the next round. Hamas will continue to launch rockets and explosives” at some point, he said.

The foreign minister asserted that every ceasefire agreement simply amounted to “an agreement to (remain) silent as Hamas continues to expand its weapons arsenal and continues to build its strength.”

In remarks which may have been a veiled snipe at Prime Minister Netanyahu, who Liberman has previous accused of being too soft on terrorism, he called on the government to capitalize on Hamas’s stubborn refusal to agree to a truce by acting decisively to defeat it.

“Specifically against the backdrop of Hamas’s blunt rejection of a ceasefire we must take the decisive and clear decision. It i impossible to constantly hesitate and flounder. This hesitation works against us. We need to go all the way – there is no other alternative here.”

Unilateral Gaza ceasefire collapses. Israeli air strikes resume after dozens of Palestinian rockets in hours.

Debka

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ordered the Israeli Air Force to resume strikes over Gaza Tuesday afternoon, six hours after a ceasefire proposed by Egypt, accepted by Israel and rejected by Hamas, was due to go into effect.

During those hours, dozens of Hamas rockets raked town after town and village after village. debkafile: The White House called off US Secretary of State John Kerry’s Cairo visit upon finding Tehran’s hand behind the rockets. Netanyahu goes on the air at 8 p.m. to explain what went wrong.

Straight after the ceasefire was due to go into effect Tuesday at 9 a.m., Hamas fired 20 rockets from the Gaza Strip.The Israeli security cabinet had meanwhile endorsed Cairo’s proposal to mediate the conflict with the Palestinian extremists, but warned that if they continued to fire rockets, Israel would hit back with “all possible force.”

In Cairo, Hamas official Mussa Abu Marzuk took responsibility for eight of the post-“truce” rockets, most of which landed on Ashdod, slightly injuring one woman. Iron Dome intercepted four.

The first rockets hit Eshkol before 9.30, soon to be followed by a steady stream at Sderot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi, Shear Hanegev, Gan Yavneh and Eshkol. As the Hamas official spoke, a rocket hit Netivot and Israel TV reporters at Shear Hanegev interrupted their broadcast and scurried to safety in a shelter.

At 12:30 p.m. Rehovot, Ness Ziona and Kibbutz Givat Brenner were targeted, then sirens blared on Mt. Carmel, in Haifa, Zichron Yaakov and Ain Hashofet and at 13.05 p.m. in the inland towns.

And the day was still young.
debkafile: It was obvious from the first that the Egyptian bid to enforce a comprehensive truce before summoning the parties to Cairo to discuss a substantial deal – on the lines published Monday night in Cairo – had no legs. It was artificially cobbled together by Israel and Egypt with no reference to the initial aggressor, Hamas and its pro-Iranian ally Jihad Islami. Had they been consulted, some sort of dialogue might have developed and led to a bilateral ceasefire, however fragile.

But this did not happen and the rosy bubble filled with nothing but hot air was bound to burst.

Early Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry was already heading to Cairo to take the lead in the Egyptian initiative when he was ordered by Washington to turn around and make tracks for home.
President Barack Obama had no wish to stand in line with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu behind their highly speculative initiative.

According to our sources in Washington, the real reason the White House pulled Kerry out of another certain fiasco in the nick of time was incoming intelligence that Tehran had ordered its Palestinian pawn Jihad Islami to ignore the ceasefire and keep on shooting from Gaza. This left Hamas no option but to follow suit.
The Obama administration was also advised of that hand behind the trickle of rockets fired this week from Lebanon and Syria at Western Galilee and the Golan. It was the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, PFLP-General Command, whose chief Ahmed Jibril has made his organization an operational branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Al Qods Brigades.

Israeli spokesmen have carefully refrained from putting these incidents together, all leading to Tehran, and inferring a well-orchestrated master plan afoot against the Jewish state that would not be put off by an unsustainable truce.
debkafile reported after midnight Monday:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted President Abdel-Fatah El-Siisi’s proposal to mediate the halt of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas faction ruling the Gaza Strip and agreed to a ceasefire going into effect Tuesday, July 15 at 9:00 a.m., debkafile reports.

The Prime minister informed senior security cabinet ministers Monday night, July 14, that he had reached this decision after conversations with Washington and Cairo, stressing that the mediation process did not mark any change in Egyptian and Israeli policies for Hamas and the Gaza Strip. The Gaza blockade would not be lifted, and Israel would not hand over the Palestinian prisoners, released for the Israeli soldier held hostage, and re-arrested again last month during the hunt for the three Israeli teenagers whom Hamas abducted and murdered. These demands were the price set by Hamas for halting its rocket fire against the Israeli population.

Netanyahu also reported the Egyptian president was fully aware that Israel would insist on any deal with Hamas being contingent on the creation of an international mechanism to dismantle and remove Hamas’s rockets stocks and production facilities from the Gaza Strip. The ministers gained the impression from his presentation that El-Sisi had not objected to this demand.
Monday night, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, announced in a speech that his movement had accepted Cairo’s proposal to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel. He held Israel responsible for initiating the military campaign against Hamas.
Official Egyptian sources published some high points of Cairo’s proposal Monday night, whereby Egyptian officials would meet with each side separately for talks held in accordance with the Cairo-brokered ceasefire of 2012 (which ended the Israeli Defensive Pillar operation).
“Israel should put an end to all of its land, sea, air hostilities against the Gaza Strip while emphasizing that no ground invasion will be implemented against Gaza or the targeting of civilians,” the Egyptian proposal stipulated.

“To end all hostilities by political factions (DEBKA: Hamas is not mentioned by name) based in Gaza against Israel via land, sea, air and underground, while emphasizing the stoppage of rockets of all kinds, assaults on the borders and the targeting of civilians,” the document said.

The proposal also called for the opening of crossings and facilitating the movement of people and goods through border crossings – but only in consideration of “ground security conditions”.

After 50 rockets were fired at Israel since the cease fire was supposed to have begun, PM Netanyahu has decided to start hitting back.By: Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News AgencyPublished: July 15th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Unilateral Cease Fire Over – IAF Attacks Gaza.

Hamas has been firing relentlessly into Israel, after Israel announced this morning that it has accepted the Egyptian brokered cease fire proposition with Hamas.

The IDF has held its fire since 9 am. Since that time, Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip have fired over 50 rockets at Israel, including one toward Haifa.

After hours of rockets falling on Israeli population centers with sirens going off 58 times and after hours of inaction, the Israel Air Force has returned to attacking terror targets in Gaza.

PM Benyamin Netanyahu warned Hamas earlier today: “If Hamas rejects the Egyptian proposal, and the rocket fire from Gaza does not cease, and that appears to be the case now, we are prepared to continue and intensify our operation to protect our people. For this we have kept full support from the responsible members of the international community.”

‘Twelve Killed’ in Israeli Strike on Syria Targets – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

IAF F-16

Flash 90

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombed several terror targets in the city of Quneitra, Syria overnight Tuesday, following a volley of rockets on the Golan Heights, Syrian media reported.

Between four and twelve people were killed in the airstrike; exact numbers have varied among news outlets.

“Israeli planes flying over the occupied Golan Heights launched rockets into southern Syria’s Quneitra province at around 1:15 am (2215 GMT). Rockets hit Base 90 — a Syrian military airbase — and regime bastion Baath City. Four people were killed,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), reported.

The Syria-Parash news outlet and Walla! listed twelve people killed, adding that several terror targets struck belong to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Municipality of Quneitra and several Syrian army outposts were also struck in the attack.

“A second strike on another area of Baath City also caused casualties, but we have been unable to confirm the number so far,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Base 90 was also hit, he added.

The IDF Spokesperson’s office has declined comment.

On Tuesday, two rockets fired from Syria into the Golan Heights exploded in open areas in the Golan Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. Military experts told Walla! News Tuesday that the rocket fire was likely the work of pro-Palestinian groups expressing solidarity with Hamas, as Israel entered the eighth day of its self-defense effort, Operation Protective Edge.

Additional mortars were fired into Israel on Sunday; the IDF returned fire.

IDF resumes strikes in Gaza after Hamas rejects ceasefire, launches dozens of rockets | JPost | Israel News.

( Massive continuous airstrikes in progress. – JW )

By HERB KEINON, YAAKOV LAPPIN

 07/15/2014 15:13

Netanyahu and Ya’alon authorize resumption of Operation Protective Edge after Israel briefly agreed to Egyptian ceasefire initiative; IDF says it will strike all “elements that are behind terrorist attacks on Israel.”

Hamas: Israel Bombed Targets East of Gaza City – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

2:08 p.m. IDF spokesperson rejects Palestinian reports of an Israeli air strike in Gaza.

( Some analysts saying that Israel knew Hamas wouldn’t accept it.  We now have International and Arab support to get serious. – JW )

If true, this is the first Israeli attack in Gaza following failed cease fire declaration.

Hamas’s official website reported Tuesday that an Israeli drone has attacked targets east of Gaza City, according to Walla. The Maariv/NRG website also reported that Israel has attacked targets in eastern Gaza.

If true, this is the first Israeli attack in Gaza following the failed cease fire declaration.

According to the IDF, at least 35 rockets have been fired on Israel since 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, when an Egyptian-brokered truce was meant to come into effect. A direct hit was scored on a house in Ashdod but no one was injured. Two rockets were intercepted around 1:00 p.m. over the Shefelah coastal plain region.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delivered a message to Hamas Tuesday in a press conference, according to which the IDF operation in Gaza will continue and be widened, unless Hamas stops firing at Israel.

“If Hamas rejects the ceasefire, we will have international legitimacy to restore the necessary quiet,” he said, some three hours after the hour set for the ceasefire passed, only to be followed by more rockets from Hamas.

“The goal of the operation was and remains to restore quiet while delivering a harsh blow to Hamas. We have hit them very hard and we foiled attempts to terrorize Israel’s population. We heeded the Egyptian offer in order to give a chance to demilitarization of the Gaza Strip by diplomatic means. If Hamas rejects this – and it looks that way – Israel will have all the legitimacy to restore quiet,” he added.

Israel accepted the truce in a surprise move Tuesday morning, after Hamas categorically rejected the notion of a ceasefire Monday night.

Kerry slams Hamas for bucking ceasefire with Israel | JPost | Israel News.

By MICHAEL WILNER

LAST UPDATED: 07/15/2014 14:11

“I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a ceasefire,” he says.

VIENNA — US Secretary of State John Kerry blamed Hamas for powering through a ceasefire with Israel, brokered by the Egyptian government and accepted by Israel’s cabinet Tuesday morning.

At least 35 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire was set to begin, mere hours ago.

“I cannot condemn strongly enough the actions of Hamas in so brazenly firing rockets in multiple numbers in the face of a goodwill effort to offer a ceasefire, in which Egypt and Israel worked together, that the international community strongly supports,” Kerry told reporters in Vienna on Tuesday morning.

Kerry said that Hamas is “purposely playing politics” by continuing the rocket fire, using innocent lives as “human shields… against the laws of war.” “And that is why they are a terrorist organization,” Kerry added.

The secretary is ready to fly back to the region at any moment, he said, and is declining to do so now in the hopes that Egypt’s effort to broker a ceasefire itself will bear fruit. But the US fears the potential for an even greater escalation of violence, he said.

“Perhaps reason could prevail” within Hamas, Kerry continued, “if the political wing could deal with the military wing.”

Kerry canceled a hastily-planned trip to the Middle East on Tuesday morning, relying instead on a ceasefire brokered by the Egyptian government between Israel and the Palestinians to at least temporarily end the conflict.

Israel’s government has accepted the proposal, but Hamas – the primary perpetrator of rocket fire from Gaza against Israeli cities and towns over the last month – has yet to respond to the paper, which calls for an end to hostilities followed by dialogue.

“The Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire and negotiations provides an opportunity to end the violence and restore calm,” Kerry said. “We welcome the Israeli cabinet’s decision to accept it. We urge all other parties to accept the proposal.”

Kerry will instead return to Washington from Vienna, where he has been engaging Iranian leadership directly over its controversial nuclear program.

“Secretary Kerry has been deeply engaged in conversations with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Egyptian government officials and President Abbas throughout this difficult period, and the United States remains committed to working with them and our regional partners to find a resolution to this dangerous and volatile situation,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Heavy Palestinian bombardment of 15 Israeli towns greets Egyptian truce bid. Tehran orders shooting to go on.

Debka

Tuesday, July 15, Hamas fired 20 rockets from the Gaza Strip in the three hours after the ceasefire proposed by Egypt was due to go into effect at 9.a.m., after flatly rejecting it. The Israeli security cabinet did endorse Cairo’s proposal to mediate the conflict with the Palestinian extremists, but warned that if they continued to fire rockets, Israel would hit back with “all possible force.”

In Cairo, Hamas official Mussa Abu Marzuk took responsibility for eight of the post-“truce” rockets, most of which landed on Ashdod, slightly injuring one woman. Iron Dome intercepted four.

The first rockets hit Eshkol before 9.30, soon to be followed by a steady stream at Sderot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malachi, Shear Hanegev, Gan Yavneh and Eshkol. As the Hamas official spoke, a rocket hit Netivot and Israel TV reporters at Shear Hanegev interrupted their broadcast and scurried to safety in a shelter.

At 12:30 p.m. Rehovot, Ness Ziona and Kibbutz Givat Brenner were targeted, then sirens blared on Mt. Carmel, in Haifa, Zichron Yaakov and Ain Hashofet and at 13.05 p.m. in the inland towns.

And the day was still young.
debkafile: It was obvious from the first that the Egyptian bid to enforce a comprehensive truce before summoning the parties to Cairo to discuss a substantial deal – on the lines published Monday night in Cairo – had no legs. It was artificially cobbled together by Israel and Egypt with no reference to the initial aggressor, Hamas and its pro-Iranian ally Jihad Islami. Had they been consulted, some sort of dialogue might have developed and led to a bilateral ceasefire, however fragile.

But this did not happen and the rosy bubble filled with nothing but hot air was bound to burst.

Early Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry was already heading to Cairo to take the lead in the Egyptian initiative when he was ordered by Washington to turn around and make tracks for home.
President Barack Obama had no wish to stand in line with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu behind their highly speculative initiative.

According to our sources in Washington, the real reason the White House pulled Kerry out of another certain fiasco in the nick of time was incoming intelligence that Tehran had ordered its Palestinian pawn Jihad Islami to ignore the ceasefire and keep on shooting from Gaza. This left Hamas no option but to follow suit.
The Obama administration was also advised of that hand behind the trickle of rockets fired this week from Lebanon and Syria at Western Galilee and the Golan. It was the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, PFLP-General Command, whose chief Ahmed Jibril has made his organization an operational branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Al Qods Brigades.

Israeli spokesmen have carefully refrained from putting these incidents together, all leading to Tehran, and inferring a well-orchestrated master plan afoot against the Jewish state that would not be put off by an unsustainable truce.
debkafile reported after midnight Monday:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has accepted President Abdel-Fatah El-Siisi’s proposal to mediate the halt of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas faction ruling the Gaza Strip and agreed to a ceasefire going into effect Tuesday, July 15 at 9:00 a.m., debkafile reports.

The Prime minister informed senior security cabinet ministers Monday night, July 14, that he had reached this decision after conversations with Washington and Cairo, stressing that the mediation process did not mark any change in Egyptian and Israeli policies for Hamas and the Gaza Strip. The Gaza blockade would not be lifted, and Israel would not hand over the Palestinian prisoners, released for the Israeli soldier held hostage, and re-arrested again last month during the hunt for the three Israeli teenagers whom Hamas abducted and murdered. These demands were the price set by Hamas for halting its rocket fire against the Israeli population.

Netanyahu also reported the Egyptian president was fully aware that Israel would insist on any deal with Hamas being contingent on the creation of an international mechanism to dismantle and remove Hamas’s rockets stocks and production facilities from the Gaza Strip. The ministers gained the impression from his presentation that El-Sisi had not objected to this demand.
Monday night, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, announced in a speech that his movement had accepted Cairo’s proposal to negotiate a ceasefire with Israel. He held Israel responsible for initiating the military campaign against Hamas.
Official Egyptian sources published some high points of Cairo’s proposal Monday night, whereby Egyptian officials would meet with each side separately for talks held in accordance with the Cairo-brokered ceasefire of 2012 (which ended the Israeli Defensive Pillar operation).
“Israel should put an end to all of its land, sea, air hostilities against the Gaza Strip while emphasizing that no ground invasion will be implemented against Gaza or the targeting of civilians,” the Egyptian proposal stipulated.

“To end all hostilities by political factions (DEBKA: Hamas is not mentioned by name) based in Gaza against Israel via land, sea, air and underground, while emphasizing the stoppage of rockets of all kinds, assaults on the borders and the targeting of civilians,” the document said.

The proposal also called for the opening of crossings and facilitating the movement of people and goods through border crossings – but only in consideration of “ground security conditions”.

Security Cabinet Agrees to Cease-Fire with Hamas – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

( 40+ rockets fired at Israel as far as Haifa in 3 hrs since this ‘cease fire.’ – JW )

IAF to stop striking Gaza at 9:00 am – despite Hamas’s refusal to adhere to the terms and conditions.

By Tova Dvorin

First Publish: 7/15/2014, 9:03 AM / Last Update: 7/15/2014, 9:17 AM

The Security Cabinet has agreed to Egypt’s proposal for a cease-fire with Hamas, beginning at 9:00 am IST – despite the fact that Hamas categorically rejected the offer on Monday night.

“A ceasefire without reaching an agreement is rejected. In times of war, you don’t cease fire and then negotiate,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told AFP.

Earlier Monday night, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group would not agree to any ceasefire that does not “meet the demands of the Palestinian people.”

“Today we are facing an important stage in the conflict with the Israeli occupation. Years of a blockade did not prevent our resistance from taking all possible measures to protect the Palestinian people,” he added.

“The Zionist enemy forced the war on us and planned it. Today we are fulfilling our duty to protect our people and our honor,” declared Haniyeh.

Meanwhile, several ministers are outraged over the Cabinet decision. Several are fuming that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has “folded” to Hamas terror.

“We were willing to pay a heavy price to complete the most significant achievements yet against Hamas,” Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) stated Tuesday morning. “There is no cosmetic facelift to a mistake like this.”

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) stated just before the agreement earlier Tuesday that the arrangement would be a major blow to Israel’s security and political standing.

“I am against a cease-fire,” Katz said. “Under the circumstances, we can do a lot better.”

‘We have not removed the threat of rocket fire completely, and we have not eliminated the Hamas elite,” he continue. “If we were successful [in this], the world would give us a standing ovation.”

Operation Protective Edge entered its eighth day Tuesday. Since the operation began, Hamas had fired no less than 1,081 rockets on major civilian population centers. Of those, 845 hit Israel; 191 were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

The IAF had struck 1,576 terror targets by the time the cease-fire was reached.

Two Rockets Fired Towards Eilat – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Two people wounded from shrapnel after rocket hits car in resort city. 11 suffered shock.

By Elad Benari

Sirens were heard in the resort city of Eilat on Monday night, shortly after 1:30 a.m.

Two rockets were fired towards the city, one of them hitting a parked car near one of the city’s hotels. A second rocket exploded in an open region.

Two people were lightly wounded from shrapnel and were taken to the Yoseftal Hospital for treatment. 11 others were treated for shock.

Firefighters were on the scene to put out a fire to the car that was hit.

Eilat has come under rocket fire several times over the past few months, but Monday night’s attack marks the first time since Operation Protective Edge began that rockets were fired towards the tourist city.

In January, terrorists fired a rocket at the city. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

The Sinai-based Salafist group, Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on the city.

Magen David Adom

Magen David Adom

Magen David Adom

Magen David Adom

Magen David Adom