Israel and Gaza exchange fire as tensions escalate

Militants in the Gaza Strip barraged southern Israel with dozens of rockets as Israel moved closer to escalating its battle against them with stepped-up air strikes and a mobilisation of reserves forces.

About 70 rockets hit Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza today, reaching as deep as 40km inside Israeli territory, police said.

The Israeli military is reinforcing regular paratrooper and infantry forces on the Gaza border with as many as 1,500 reservists, according to military spokesman Lt-Col Peter Lerner.

“While last week the army talked about de-escalation, now we’re talking about preparation for possible escalation,” Lt-Col Lerner said.

Cabinet ministers who met in Jerusalem today ordered harsher air strikes against the increased rocket fire, though not a broad ground offensive, Channel 2 TV reported.

Economy minister Naftali Bennett told the station that “Israel must broadcast deterrence. The entire Mideast is looking.”

Gaza militants began bombarding southern Israel after the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers last month led to an Israeli roundup of Hamas operatives in the West Bank.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the killings on Hamas, which has neither confirmed or denied involvement.

For the first time today, Hamas took responsibility for rockets fired during the latest round of violence. The announcement in a statement to reporters may have implications for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s formation last month of a unity government backed by Hamas.

Mr Abbas has said the new government, which ended a seven-year rift between the West Bank and Gaza, would abide by principles of non-violence.

Authorities of some southern communities were ordered to prepare bomb shelters, the military said on its Twitter account. While there have been no serious injuries from rocket fire, homes have been hit.

Israeli aircraft struck 18 targets today, including attacks that killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded a 4-year-old girl, according to Hamas officials.

Targets included a tunnel Hamas fighters built to smuggle militants into Israel to attack civilians and soldiers, the military said in an e-mailed statement. In all, 12 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza air strikes and seven in the West Bank arrest raids.

For foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s response to the rocket fire hasn’t been forceful enough. This afternoon, he dismantled his political alliance with Netanyahu’s governing Likud party.

“It is no secret that substantial and fundamental differences have arisen in recent days between myself and the prime minister that do not allow us to continue the joint framework,” Mr Liberman said at a televised press conference from the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem.

While his Yisrael Beitenu party was ending its political tieup with Mr Netanyahu’s party, it will remain in the coalition because “there is no better alternative to this coalition at this time,” he said.

Bloomberg