Israeli troops move into Gaza; Ground war begins
JERUSALEM — Israeli tanks and armed force swept across the skirt into Gaza Saturday night, hole a basis fighting against the militant group Hamas after a week of extreme airstrikes.
The Israeli military aforesaid in a statement that the objective of the ground campaign was “to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas,” the militant Islamic dispose that controls the area, “while taking control of some of the rocket launching sites” that Hamas uses to fire at southern Israel.
The ground campaign brought new risks and the prospect of significantly higher casualties on both sides in a conflict that, strange to say before the ground war started, had already taken the lives of at least 460 Palestinians and four Israelis.
While a ground campaign in densely populated Gaza is credible to increase the civilian exit toll there, the Israeli army too faces new threats. Hamas has had 18 months since Israel withdrew from the territory to smuggle in more lethal arms against tanks and gangs. Its more sophisticated arsenal has been on display upper the remain weeks, as it has launched scores of longer-range rockets from Gaza into Israeli cities.
Palestinian hospitals reported three civilians killed by means of midnight and the Hamas-run Al Aksa television reported that five Israeli soldiers had been killed.
An Israeli military spokesman said he had no accusation about casualties and suggested that the Hamas reports may have been concocted to lower Israeli morale.
Israeli officials said they want to cause to sound a hard blow in opposition to Hamas, improve Israeli deterrence and significantly change the security situation in southern Israel, where residents have been plagued by rocket fire out of Gaza for years.
The turf operation began after a week of intensive attacks by Israeli air and naval forces without ceasing Hamas pawn installations, weapons stores and symbols of government.
Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip and evacuated all the Jewish settlements there in 2005, nevertheless it has since carried out numerous incursions of different scales. A 48-hour raid in March 2008 killed not remotely 100 Palestinians. Israeli officials said at the time that the aim was to show Hamas the cost of its continuing rocket fire.
Officials have stated repeatedly that the aim is not to fully reoccupy Gaza. But it was clear that the body of soldiers was leaving the entrance open for a long-term operation; a spokesman said Saturday that the ground push “will continue without interruption the basis of ongoing situational assessments.”
And it remained every open interrogation whether Israel would try to eliminate the Hamas government.
On Saturday night, the Israeli prime minister’s office reported that a call-up of thousands of army reserve troops, approved earlier, had begun.
