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Operation Protective Edge: Israel bombs Gaza in retaliation for rockets | Operation Protective Edge: Israel bombs Gaza in retaliation for rockets |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Israel launched what its military indicated could be a long-term offensive | |
against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, | |
striking at least 50 sites in Gaza by air and sea and mobilising troops | |
for a possible ground invasion in order to quell rocket attacks on | |
Israel. | |
The army said its offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, was | |
aimed at striking Hamas and ending the rocket fire that has intensified | |
in recent weeks amid tensions over the killing of three Israeli | |
teenagers and the apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian teenager. | |
Nearly 300 rockets and mortars had been fired at Israel in recent | |
weeks, including a barrage of about 80 projectiles on Monday alone, the | |
army said. Israel has responded with dozens of air strikes and eight | |
Palestinian militants were killed on Monday. Israel had signalled it | |
would not launch a larger offensive if the militant group Hamas ceased | |
the rocket fire. | |
"They chose the direction of escalation," said army spokesman Lieutenant | |
Peter Lerner. "So the mission will go on as long as we feel it is | |
necessary to carry it out. We don't expect it to be a short mission on | |
our behalf." | |
Among the 50 sites the army said it targeted early on Tuesday were four | |
houses belonging to militants, three militant compounds, 18 concealed | |
rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure sites. Most were | |
targeted in air strikes and three were attacked from the sea. | |
Gaza health official Ashraf Al-Kedra said at least nine Palestinian | |
civilians were brought to a Gaza hospital with light to moderate | |
injuries from the air strikes, including several who suffered shock. | |
He said some of the injured Palestinians were treated and released. | |
Lerner, the military spokesman, said the army would gradually increase | |
its attacks on Hamas in Gaza and was recruiting additional reservists | |
for a potential ground invasion of Gaza. | |
Hamas had amassed about 10,000 rockets including longer-range rockets | |
that can reach "up to Tel Aviv and beyond", Lerner said, adding that the | |
army was preparing for the possibility that Hamas would launch rockets | |
toward Israel's heartland and its commercial and cultural hub. | |
The army ordered hundreds of thousands of Israelis within a 40km (25 mile) radius of the Gaza Strip to stay indoors, including Israelis | |
in the major southern city of Beersheva, Lerner said. |