WarSclerotic

By: Meir Halevi SiegelPublished: July 18th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Breaking News: IDF Soldier Killed in Gaza.

Sgt. Eitan Barak (20) of Herzeliya was killed overnight during the initial stage of the ground operation into Gaza.

Palestinian media reported that the soldier was killed by Palestinian “militants,” but Channel 1 said the soldier was killed by friendly fire. Five additional soldiers light to moderate wounds in separate incidents.

The targets included the home of Abdullah al-Shami, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza City.

According to the IDF Spokesperson, since 8 pm Thursday until 6 am Friday morning, over 143 targets were hit, including some 20 rocket launchers. Palestinian sources also reported that 10 Palestinians were killed in the overnight strikes. The army also said overnight that an additional 18,000 reserve soldiers would be called up for the ground operation.

Responding to the tragedy, Likud MK Zeev Elkin, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said the ground war would continue as long as necessary. He said Israel would make no concessions to Hamas, and that the terror gang will be weakened as a result of the current flare up.

Hamas must be forced to stop firing rockets and must be brought to a point where it is asking for ceasefire,” Elkiin said.

More updates to follow

Hamas has chosen to be humiliated by an IDF ground incursion instead of a ceasefire.

By: Tzvi Ben-GedalyahuPublished: July 17th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Netanyahu Orders Ground Operation.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave the IDF the green light for a ground invasion of Gaza that already has begun late Thursday night as thousands of more reservists, including those serving in tank battalions, reported for duty.

Soldiers already have taken control of relatively less-populated areas in northern Gaza.

“Following ten days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to deescalate the situation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated.

It added, “The IDF’s objective as defined by the Israeli government is to establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continues indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas’ terror infrastructure.

“This stage of operation “Protective Edge,” led by the IDF’s Southern Command, will include close coordination between IDF units including infantry, armored corps, engineer corps, artillery, and intelligence combined with aerial and naval support. This effort will also be supported by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) and other intelligence organizations.”

A sure sign of an impending ground incursion Thursday evening was the IDF’s bringing out the artillery to work with naval and air power to try to stem the renewal of a massive Hamas assault on half of Israel immediately after the end of the five-hour United Nations-sponsored “humanitarian” ceasefire,” which Hamas broke after two hours.

Hamas in effect chose to opt for an IDF ground incursion by insisting on what Israeli officials said were impossible conditions for a ceasefire and by unleashing another barrage of rocket and missile fire.

Hamas tested Israel’s will with a barrage or rockets as soon as the five-hour ceasefire ended at 3 p.m. Israeli time.

The Iron Dome shot down more than dozen rockets over Ashdod and Tel Aviv, but one man was critically injured when he jumped out of his car and raced for a shelter.

One building in Kiryat Gat, 25 miles north of Be’er Sheva, was hit by a rocket. No serious injuries were reported.

DF begins ground operation in the Gaza Strip

Palestinians report three people have been killed in heavy artillery firing at northern Gaza, including one child;

IAF resumes strikes after end of humanitarian ceasefire

Ynet reporters, AFPLatest Update: 07.17.14, 22:44 / Israel News

via IDF begins ground operation in the Gaza Strip – Israel News, Ynetnews.

IDF forces began a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip on Thursday night, as Israel made good on the next stage of the operation, which it warned would happen if the rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled area did not stop.

The incursion signals a new stage in the IDF’s Operation Protective Edge, which began 10 days ago in the face of the ongoing rocket barrages on southern communities. Since the start of the operation, militants in the Strip have expanded their targets to include areas of central Israel, with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem coming under fire, along with Holon, Bat Yam, Rishon Lezion and Yavne.

The ground operation began with heavy artillery shelling of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the Palestinians, three people have been killed in the artillery attack, including one child.

The army fired numerous flares to light up the night sky over the Strip, and the IAF increased its aerial strikes, while attack helicopters were circling the northern Gaza sky. The Navy fired several shells from the sea.

Residents living near the Gaza border have been instructed to enter bomb shelters and safe room.

Loud explosions were heard along the Gaza border. Israelis living in the area near the border said they noticed the flying shells, and that the army fire was more intense than in previous days.

A heavy barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip was fired at southern and central Israel. The Iron Dome intercepted seven rockets over the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.

The security cabinet was scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss the Gaza operation.

The artillery shelling started after over 100 rockets were fired at Israel in the five hours since the humanitarian ceasefire ended at 3pm.

The Palestinians said earlier that six people had been killed in IAF airstrikes that resumed following the five-hour humanitarian pause asked by the UN.

The IAF attacked 30 terror targets across the Gaza Strip following the halt in fire, including a weapons manufacturing site, 10 hidden rocket launchers and 11 terror targets.

Three children from the same family were killed in an Israeli strike in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City on Thursday afternoon. Three other members of the family were wounded.

A four-year-old girl was killed in an IAF strike in Khan Younis.

A man was killed at a 4:35pm strike in Beit Hanoun, and four Palestinians were wounded in a strike at eastern al-Bureij refugee camp.

Before the ceasefire took effect at 10am, Israeli tank fire killed three men in their twenties in the southern city of Rafah, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.

The Rafah deaths came after another seven people were killed overnight.

Two men were killed in Gaza City, another two in Deir al-Balah and a fifth in northern Beit Lahiya.

One man was also killed in southern Khan Yunis and another in Rafah, Qudra said.

The Palestinians report that the death toll so far in Operation Protective Edge has risen to 236 people, while over 1,700 were wounded. According to figures provided by the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), more than 80 percent of the conflict’s victims have been civilians.

So far during Operation Protective Edge, Israel has struck more than 1,750 terror targets across the coastal enclave, the army said.

Yoav Zitun, Ahiya Raved, Roi Kais and Nimdor Semel contributed to this report.

IDF starts Gaza ground invasion

By YAAKOV LAPPINLAST UPDATED: 07/17/2014 22:38

Since the end of the humanitarian truce at 3 p.m. 100 projectiles fired into Israel;

IDF drops leaflets over Gaza warning people to vacate their villages.

via IDF starts Gaza ground invasion | JPost | Israel News.

IDF ground forces began to move into the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, the prime minister’s office confirmed.

The purpose of the operation was to destroy the Gazan terror tunnels leading to Israel, according to a statement released by the prime minister’s office.

The IDF launched a massive wave of combined air and artillery strikes on Thursday night, in a possible signal that Israel may be on the verge of a ground offensive against Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the
Gaza Strip.
Related:

Palestinian sources said strikes occurred up and down the Strip, adding that one strike targeted a motorcycle apparently carrying members of a rocket launching cell on their way to an attack on
Israel.

At around 10:00 p.m. rocket sirens sounded in the Tel Aviv area, and in the Shfela. Iron Dome made a number of interceptions in the Tel Aviv area.

Hamas bombarded Israel on Thursday with rockets after the end of the humanitarian truce, firing over 100 projectiles after 3 p.m. Eighty one rockets landed in open areas, two fell inside villages, damaging two homes, and 20 were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.

Also on Thursday, a drone from Gaza was detected in Israeli airspace, over the Ashkelon area. The IAF fired a patriot surface-to-air missile at the aircraft, shooting it down. It was the second Hamas drone to be shot down in recent days.

The IDF on Thursday warned citizens of Gaza to evacuate their homes and make their way from less populated areas to the Strip’s major cities.

Close to 100,000 leaflets containing the message were dropped over the territory and hundreds of thousands of citizens from all over Gaza received recorded phone messages warning them to vacate villages.

Air raid sirens sounded throughout southern and central areas during the day. Ashkelon and Ashdod were targeted by Hamas repeatedly in the evening, and were successfully defended by Iron Dome.

Iron Dome intercepted two rockets over central Israel and the Sharon district in the evening, and one over the city of Ashdod. Several rockets landed in open areas.

The Gaza-border region of Eshkol came under continuous rocket barrages. Some ten rockets in open areas, and one damaged a home.

Between 3 pm and 5:30 pm, Hamas fired 40 rockets at Israel, and Iron Dome shot three down Two rockets were fired at Beersheba, with one falling in an open area and a second intercepted over the Negev city.

Within a minute of the ceasefire ending, rockets were fired from Gaza at the Ashkelon industrial area and Hof Ashkelon region. Most fell in open areas.

The humanitarian ceasefire was violated when Hamas fired 3 projectiles at the Eshkol region. The rockets exploded in open areas.

On Thursday morning, one rocket was intercepted over the greater Tel Aviv and Sharon district, and one rocket fell in an open area. In Beersheba, Iron Dome intercepted an incoming Gazan rocket.

Hamas: In Next Round, We’ll Invade Israel

Senior Hamas official promises terror group will prepare larger missiles for the next campaign

By Dalit HalevyFirst Publish: 7/17/2014, 9:21 PM

via Hamas: In Next Round, We’ll Invade Israel – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Osama Hamdan, who is in charge of foreign affairs in Hamas, has presented an uncompromising stance regarding the war against Israel.

In the course of the meal breaking the daily Ramadan fast, Hamdan said that Hamas can hold on for many months, and that it is manufacturing a new missile for every one that is fired at Israel, and has additional “surprises” in store. All of Hamas’s rockets are locally manufactured, he said, except for the Grad Katyushas which were brought from Libya.

Hamdan described the Egyptian mediation as an attempt that reflects the mentality of the period of “Arab defeats,” but said that the Palestinian nation today will only agree to “the mentality of the generation that seeks freedom and refuses to be humiliated.”

While the entire world intervenes to try and save Israel and stop the war, said Hamdan, Hamas is steadfast in its position, that the fire must only cease in accordance under the conditions it sets, and that the enemy must either heed these conditions or face continued missile strikes.

Hamdan added that when Israel declared a ceasefire, Hamas’s response was to fire 47 missiles at western Jerusalem, Eilat and Tel Aviv. He mocked the Israelis, saying: “The Jew cannot stand to suffer in the shelter for two hours, and the nation in Gaza has gotten used to sleeping to the sound of artillery.”

“In the next campaign,” he promised, “we plan to manufacture larger missiles, and we will plan the liberation of the land (inside Israel) and its annexation to the liberated territory (in Gaza) and we will attack them by land.”

20 missiles found in UN-run school in Gaza, Times of Israel, Raphael Ahren, July 17, 2014

UNRWA apologizes to Israel, condemns a ‘flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises’ and promises investigation.

(What happened to the rockets after UNRWA removed them to protect the “safety and security of the school?” — DM)

Smoke from rockets fired from Gaza City is seen after being launched toward Israel, on July 15, 2014 ( photo credit: AFP/ Thomas Coex)

Some 20 rockets were found Wednesday in a school in Gaza operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization confirmed Thursday.

“UNRWA strongly condemns the group or groups responsible for placing the weapons in one of its installations. This is a flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law,” the statement read.

The discovery would seem to confirm Israel’s oft-repeated claim that Hamas and other Gazan terror groups use civilian infrastructure to hide weapons.

This incident was “the first of its kind in Gaza,” the organization said, adding that it “endangered civilians including staff and put at risk UNRWA’s vital mission to assist and protect Palestinian refugees in Gaza.”

UNRWA informed all officials immediately after discovering the rockets, and “successfully took all necessary measures for the removal of the objects in order to preserve the safety and security of the school.”

Officials from the agency, which has a reputation in Jerusalem of being exceedingly critical of Israeli policies vis-à-vis the Palestinians, have been summoned to the Foreign Ministry. They have apologized to Israel for the incident, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said.

UNRWA has launched a “comprehensive investigation” into the incidence, the statement said.

The agency, charged with taking care of the welfare of Palestinian refugees, has “strong, established procedures to maintain the neutrality of all its premises, including a strict no-weapons policy and routine inspections of its installations, to ensure they are only used for humanitarian purposes,” its statement read. “UNRWA will uphold and further reinforce its procedures.”

Ceasefire negotiations bring Gaza ground operation closer than ever – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Israel’s determination to demilitarize Gaza and Hamas’ desire to shed Israeli blood could well mean IDF boots on the ground before calm is restored.

Published:     07.17.14, 14:50 / Israel Opinion

Negotiations for a ceasefire moved into a serious stage on Wednesday night, but – absurdly – an IDF ground operation in Gaza seems closer than ever, and is apparently inevitable.

This is down to the fact that Hamas is now trying with all its might, or rather last of its strength, to gain some kind of operational achievement, one that, if realized, could lead to the deaths of Israeli civilians and soldiers. On Wednesday night, the IDF thwarted a massive infiltration attempt through a tunnel dug in Gaza and emerging near Kibbutz Sufa.

This attempted infiltration was another effort by Hamas to rehabilitate its poor operational image and boost its bargaining power during the negotiations on a ceasefire. The relatively large group of terrorists entered through the tunnel that led under the fence close to Sufa, and were apparently intending a major attack with a high death toll and the abduction of soldiers and civilians. Had this plan succeeded, it would have drastically altered the face of this war.

Luckily, Military Intelligence, with the assistance of the Shin Bet, had information enough to issue a warning, and security forces were waiting for the would-be terrorists. But the danger of the tunnels is far from diminished, rather just further illustrated. The IDF knew of a major tunnel through which Hamas intended to attack the Kerem Shalom area with a large number of men. The tunnel was exposed, but it now appears that there are other networks branching in untold directions, including the one near Kibbutz Sufa that was uses Thursday morning. The question of how many more tunnels or offshoots there are cannot be answered without an IDF presence west of the Gaza border fence.

No responsible political or military leader can afford to have the kibbutzim surrounding Gaza under constant threat from tunnels once Israel and Hamas reach an agreement. So the dilemma of the Netanyahu-Ya’alon-Gantz troika over whether or not launch a ground operation has, with this foiled terror attack, been resolved by Hamas itself.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the long-term demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. This issue is relevant now more than ever, and therefore likely be raised in the early stages of the negotiations currently going on in Cairo. Nonetheless, this is not truly feasible if Israel only tries to achieve it through negotiations. There has to be a major shift at the operational level on the ground for Hamas to even consider responding to this demand.

The Israeli and Hamas delegations are already in Cairo and a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire began at 10 am. But the preliminary demands presented introduced Wednesday by Hamas are clearly unrealistic, not just from Israel’s perspective but primarily from Egypt’s, given that the Hamas demands center around the round-the-clock opening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, with international supervision. There is at this stage no point in discussing the specific demands from Hamas, as they will inevitably be subject to change.

In general, Hamas is in the worst shape in its history, and the IDF has begun to note a growing bitterness towards it among the population in Gaza.

When Hamas’ leaders emerge from their bunkers during Thursday’s humanitarian lull, they will look out at the destruction and perhaps their perspective will change. It is now clear that the Egyptian negotiators have their work cut out, and one can only hope that the Turkish and Qatari mediation offer goes nowhere.

As an aside, the one sticking a spoke in the wheels of the current mediation efforts is none other than our old friend John Kerry. Usual, the US secretary of state is filled with good intentions, and he is the one pushing the Qatari and Turkish track, although it seems that this time it won’t work. This is simply because not just Israel and Hamas have a vested interest in restoring calm, but Egypt and Mahmoud Abbas as well. As such, Qatar and Turkey have no part in the equation.

We may have reached the beginning of the end of Operation Protective Edge, but the final curtain is still a long way off.

Israel, Hamas Deny BBC Reports on Cease-Fire – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Israel on Thursday denied that a cease-fire had been worked out with Hamas. The BBC reported that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to a “comprehensive” cease-fire, which would go into effect 6 AM Friday. The reports, said the BBC, was based on Israeli sources.

According to the report, Israel had agreed to two of three Hamas key demands; a reopening of the Rafiach crossing (under the control of Egypt; the report said that Cairo had agreed to this as well), and the reopening of crossings into Israel to allow free travel to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. Israel has not agreed to another Hamas demand, the rerelease of terrorists formerly released in the Gilad Shalit deal who were arrested last month in the IDF sweep of Hamas, as soldiers searched for the murderers of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Sha’ar.

An Israeli official said that there was currently no agreement, and that the BBC report was “wildly optimistic. Hamas’ demands are way out of proportion” to what Israel is prepared to give. A Hamas spokesperson also denied the reports.

The report came out as the UN-inspired “humanitarian” cease-fire was set to expire. The cease-fire was violated by Hamas, which fired three mortar shells at front-line communities in Israel. Israel did not respond to the attack.

On Wednesday night, the UN called for a “humanitarian cease-fire” that would last for six hours, to enable Gaza residents to stock up on supplies, but the Egyptian proposal would set a more long-term cease-fire. Israel and Hamas do not speak directly; reports said that an Israeli and Hamas team were in the same hotel in Cairo Thursday, with Egyptian officials shuttling between the rooms, presenting proposals and counter-proposals.

Meanwhile, despite the UN cease-fire, which Israel agreed to, Hamas continued firing rockets Thursday morning. A barrage of rockets was fired at Beersheva. The Iron Dome system knocked out four of the missiles. No injuries have been reported. Hamas also took responsibility for an attempt by terrorists to conduct a major terror attack in Israel by infiltrating through a Gaza terror tunnel. The 13 terrorists involved in the attempted attack were apparently surprised that they were being observed by Israeli soldiers, an IDF official said, and attempted to return to Gaza via the tunnel, at which point an Israel Air Force plane destroyed the entrance to the tunnel.

A Hamas official said Thursday that Israel would have to “pay a price” if it wanted a cease-fire. Mohammed Nazel said that Israel “has to promise, with international guarantees, that they will stop attacking Gaza. Second, they have to open up all the passages between Gaza and the rest of the world. In addition they have to allow free movement in Gaza.”

Israeli officials have said publicly that their objective in Operation Protective Edge is to restore quiet to Israeli cities. But government sources quoted in the media over recent days said that Israel also had demands for implementing a cease-fire, specifically international supervision of the dismantling of Hamas’ rocket and missile supply.

IDF foils major Hamas tunnel terrorist attack on Kibbutz Sufa. IDF ground operation widely predicted.

Debka

Hamas tried sending a commando team through a tunnel snaking under the Gaza border for a large-scale terrorist attack or kidnap early Thursday, July 17.  As the group of 13-30 started coming to the surface near Kibbutz Sufa, some 15 km from the southern Gaza Strip, it ran into heavy IDF fire. Some were killed; the rest turned tail to escape through the tunnel and reach home. Israeli helicopters bombed the tunnel which exploded, and went on to scour the area around the Gaza Strip for more attempted incursions, through the honeycomb of secret tunnels Hamas has sunk for terrorist attacks and kidnaps.
debkafile quotes Israeli and Western military experts as estimating that the prospects of an Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip are now more real than the chances of a ceasefire. There is little substance to the reports that Hamas and Israeli delegations are in Cairo to discuss various drafts of a ceasefire accord.

Our sources stress that the only real talks revolve around an ultimatum Israel has slapped down for Hamas, via the various would-be peacemakers: It has only days to halt its rocket offensive before Israel launches a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The question being asked now is why, after 10 days of trading Israeli air strikes for Palestinian rocket attacks, the IDF has not destroyed the Hamas war room, the seat of its command and control center for directing the war and launching rockets, instead of striking the vacant homes of Hamas high-ups.
In the absence of a clear battlefield victory, headlines are appearing like this one: “Hamas Has Already Won Its Rocket War With Israel.”
Even IDF commanders are noting that the IDF, while hammering the Gaza Strip night after night, has not achieved a single tactical victory. Destroying the Hamas war room would serve this purpose.

debkafile‘s military and intelligence sources note that finding and destroying underground structures is a daunting challenge, which is why Hamas has sunk its resources for fighting Israel deep below the surface. The war room in particular is a whole town complex, which runs under the surface buildings at the center of Gaza City, including the Shifa Hospital. This labyrinth accommodates top Hamas military personnel, the local social elite made up of Hamas bigwigs, affluent Gazans, foreign citizens and professionals like doctors or engineers.
It has a large and elaborate system of conference rooms, as well as control and command centers, outfitted with air conditioning, its own electricity and communications systems, security, and storerooms for food, drink and medicines to support the hundreds of top personnel operating and sheltering in the facility.

The Hamas underground city can function for weeks without outside help.

The various would-be European peace brokers, including foreign ministers and the Middle East Special Envoy Tony Blair, have been concerned to preserve the Hamas core stronghold, so as to leave the Islamist organization intact at the end of the current round of hostilities as a future negotiating partner and surviving government of the Gaza Strip. Our military sources say that this core stronghold is in fact Hamas’ sunken war room complex.
The Obama administration has been careful to keep its head down and make sure not to be seen or heard until Washington sees where this process is going.

Former Israel Air Force chief, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who also led the planning team for a strike on Iran, hinted this week that if the air force and IDF had the capability for destroying the underground nuclear facilities at Fordo, they could also destroy the Hamas underground command center.

When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu saw Wednesday that the cross diplomacy in Cairo had little chance of gong anywhere, he ordered a call-up of 8,000 military reservists in anticipation of the week ahead. The IDF spokesman said: The forces are prepared for ground action. After the Hamas tunnel terror bid was foiled Thursday, a ground operation was seen to be close, as the only effective measure against tunnel warfare.