Israel resumed its air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday a day after holding its fire in deference to an Egyptian-proposed cease-fire deal that failed to get accepted by Hamas.
The house of top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar was bombed and destroyed by the Israeli Air Force, in the first
The IDF said on Wednesday it had sent out warning messages to residents in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes ahead of renewed attacks.
Palestinian officials said residents in two Gaza City neighborhoods had received the warnings but Gaza Interior Ministry told people not to heed the Israeli messages and dismissed them as psychological warfare.
Gaza terrorists kept up rocket salvoes into Israel, firing more than 150 rockets at Israel since Tuesday, when the truce was to begin.
Under the blueprint announced by Egypt - Gaza’s neighbor and whose military-backed government has been at odds with Islamist Hamas - a mutual “deescalation” was to have begun at 9 a.m. on Tuesday with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours.
Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, rejected the cease-fire deal and said its battle with Israel would “increase in ferocity and intensity”.
However, Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas political official who was in Cairo, said the movement, which is seeking a deal that would ease the Egyptian and Israeli border restrictions throttling Gaza’s economy, had made no final decision on Cairo’s proposal.
Israel, citing the persistent salvoes, resumed attacks in Gaza six hours after implementation of the truce was to have begun. The military said it targeted at least 20 of Hamas’ hidden rocket launchers, tunnels and weapons storage facilities. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks late on Tuesday that Israel had no choice but to “expand and intensify” its campaign on Hamas, though he did not specifically mention the possibility of a ground incursion. "Hamas chose to continue the battle and it will pay a price for that decision," Netanyahu said, adding: "When there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire.''
The Israeli Security Cabinet which met into the early hours of Wednesday had discussed a limited ground operation, an Israeli official was quoted by the 'Reuters' news agency as saying.
One Israeli was killed in an attack. Dror Hanin, 37, succumbed to his wounds on Tuesday after being hit by Gaza mortar fire near the Erez Crossing, marking Israel's first fatality during Operation Protective Edge. Hanin was a civilian who had come to bring food and drinks to soldiers serving on the Gaza border.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted 20 of the Hamas projectiles, including two over the Tel Aviv area, and the rest caused no damage or casualties.
Israel has mobilized tens of thousands of troops for a threatened invasion into the enclave, that is home to 1.8 million Palestinians, if the rocket volleys persisted.
Speaking in Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry supported Israel: “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 secure) a cease-fire.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who reached an agreement with Hamas in April that led to the formation of a unity government last month, called for acceptance of the proposal, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA said.
Abbas was expected to arrive in Cairo on Wednesday for talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Palestinian leader’s spokesman said. The Arab League, at a meeting on Monday, also welcomed the cease-fire plan. Under the proposal announced by Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, high-level delegations from Israel and the Palestinian factions would hold separate talks in Cairo within 48 hours to consolidate the cease-fire with “confidence-building measures”.