WarSclerotic

Israel Calls Up 16,000 Reservists to Replenish Forces in Gaza, Wall Street Journal, Joshua Mitnick, July 31, 2014

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Stands Firm on Israeli Objectives.

An Israeli soldier carries a shell at an army deployment area along the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Thursday. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

TEL AVIV—Israel’s military said Thursday it was calling up 16,000 reserves for its campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, a day after some of the deadliest fighting of the 23-day conflict.

Israeli officials said the military had yet to complete one of the operation’s main goals—destroying cross-border tunnels Hamas uses to infiltrate fighters into Israel. The military said it has uncovered 32 tunnels so far.

“We are determined to complete this mission—with or without a cease-fire,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a special meeting of his cabinet on Thursday in Tel Aviv. “Therefore I wont agree to a proposal that doesn’t allow the Israeli Defence Forces to complete this important task.”

Mr. Netanyahu’s security cabinet decided Wednesday to press ahead with the offensive, defying international pressure to end it. At the same time, Israel sent a delegation to Egypt, which has been trying, with U.S. support, to broker a cease-fire.

Israel rejected a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal last week, saying it failed to address Israel’s demand for disarming Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza. Hamas leaders have said they won’t stop the fight without guarantees that a seven-year-old blockade of Gaza’s borders by Israel and Egypt would be lifted.

Some officials in Mr. Netanyahu’s government have called for the offensive to be widened.

The call-up of reserves didn’t appear to signal such a move. An Israeli official said the new reserves would replenish soldiers leaving Gaza. Israel had previously sent 70,000 reserves to bolster its offensive in the Palestinian territory.

In fighting Thursday, the Israeli military said infantry forces killed a militant climbing out of a tunnel shaft in northern Gaza. Militants fired 16 rockets into Israel during the morning, the military said.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said four Palestinians were killed during the morning.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Wednesday, the ministry said—15 at a United Nations school sheltering people displaced by the fighting and 17 at a crowded market.

U.N. officials said the school was hit by Israeli artillery. A military spokeswoman said Israeli forces had been returning fire at militants near the school.

The ministry said more than 1,360 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched the offensive on July 8 in response to increasing rocket attacks from Gaza.

Fifty-six Israeli soldiers have been killed, including three who died Wednesday while uncovering a booby-trapped tunnel shaft inside a residence in southern Gaza, the military said. Three civilians have been killed by rockets fired into Israel.

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