- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas
- Message from Jerusalem to the Egyptians and Turks, who are trying to mediate truce between the sides, is that any conditions from Hamas are a non-starter
- Some 40,000 Israeli troops amassed on Gaza border.
Photo credit: Lior Mizrahi
Soldiers
near the Gaza border rest before a briefing.
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Photo credit: Ziv Koren
Children
wave at troops headed to a gathering point near the Gaza border.
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Photo credit: Lior
Mizrahi 
IDF
tanks gather near the border with Gaza ahead of a possible ground incursion.
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Photo credit: AFP 
Soldiers
train in urban warfare ahead of a possible Gaza invasion.
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Photo credit: Ziv Koren
Smoke
billows in Gaza following an Israel Air Force strike.
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Photo credit: AP 
Israeli
troops gather near the Gaza Strip border over the weekend.
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Photo credit: Lior
Mizrahi | ||||||||
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One possible sign of this were reports from Arab and
international media outlets that the IDF had taken over the radio frequencies in
Gaza and was broadcasting warnings to residents living near the Israel border to
move away, possibly in preparation for a ground offensive. The IDF has moved
significant hardware and troop numbers to the Gaza border area.
Speaking
at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, "By now the IDF has attacked over
1,000 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip and it is continuing its operations as
we speak. It is achieving significant hits on weapons aimed at Israeli citizens,
as well as on those who use these weapons and those who dispatch them. We are
exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the [other] terrorist organizations, and
the IDF is prepared for a significant expansion of its operations."
...On the possible launch of a ground operation in Gaza, in addition to the IDF's current surgical airstrikes, Netanyahu said, "The operation in the Gaza Strip is continuing and we are prepared to expand it. I appreciate the rapid and impressive mobilization of the reservists, who have come from all over the country and turned out for the mission at hand. Reserve and conscripted soldiers are ready for any order they might receive."
...On the possible launch of a ground operation in Gaza, in addition to the IDF's current surgical airstrikes, Netanyahu said, "The operation in the Gaza Strip is continuing and we are prepared to expand it. I appreciate the rapid and impressive mobilization of the reservists, who have come from all over the country and turned out for the mission at hand. Reserve and conscripted soldiers are ready for any order they might receive."
Meanwhile, as rockets continued to hit Israel on Sunday,
with two rockets aimed at Tel Aviv but intercepted by Iron Dome, it appeared
that both sides were not drawing nearer to any cease-fire, despite reports a day
earlier in the Arab media suggesting a truce was in the works. ...The reports were
denied in Israel, but the option of Israel holding its fire was not rejected if
Hamas stops its rocket attacks.
Simultaneously, reserve troops continued to amass along
the Gaza border over the weekend.
"As of now, we have struck more than 1,000 targets, so
Hamas should do the math over whether it is worth it or not to agree to a
cease-fire," said Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
"If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and
missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from
the Gaza Strip, we will not attack," he wrote on Twitter.
...A senior Egyptian source confirmed the reports: "While
Hamas is interested in a cease-fire based on certain conditions to be presented
to Israel, the message from Jerusalem to the Egyptians and Turks, who are trying
to mediate between the sides, is that any conditions from Hamas are a
non-starter."
...Israeli officials said that if Egypt forced a cease-fire on Hamas, it
could be assumed that Israel would accept it.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said over the weekend,
"If you launch a ground operation, you can't stop in the middle. In Operation
Cast Lead [in 2008-9] this is what happened, and we paid a heavy price in
international public opinion and the objective wasn't reached."
Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau, also from Lieberman's
Yisrael Beytenu party, said at the cabinet meeting,
"We are not yet at the point of a cease-fire. A cease-fire now would be a serious mistake. The goals of the operation must be achieved at any price, even with a ground incursion, if it can't be avoided. We can't repeat the mistakes of the past, when we stopped operations in the middle, before ensuring that we had destroyed the terrorist infrastructure and before ensuring that we had made sure they could no longer smuggle weapons. This matter requires perseverance and patience."
"We are not yet at the point of a cease-fire. A cease-fire now would be a serious mistake. The goals of the operation must be achieved at any price, even with a ground incursion, if it can't be avoided. We can't repeat the mistakes of the past, when we stopped operations in the middle, before ensuring that we had destroyed the terrorist infrastructure and before ensuring that we had made sure they could no longer smuggle weapons. This matter requires perseverance and patience."
Meanwhile, the IDF continued preparing for a possible
ground invasion over the weekend. After the government authorized the enlistment
of 75,000 reserve troops, some 40,000 have amassed so far near the border with
Gaza. According to the London Times, on Friday the IDF was directed to be ready
for a ground incursion "within an hour's notice."
Appearing before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said,
"In the past year and a half, all of the combat troops have undergone training on mission-related models to prepare them for a ground operation. The sense that we are getting from the soldiers is, 'Let us in.'"
"In the past year and a half, all of the combat troops have undergone training on mission-related models to prepare them for a ground operation. The sense that we are getting from the soldiers is, 'Let us in.'"
It appears that senior IDF officers, among them Gantz,
believe that if a diplomatic solution cannot be reached, a ground operation
would be required, which according to the plan would be conducted on a larger
scale than Operation Cast Lead.
GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Tal Russo said:
"We have a plan in place that is incremental in its use of force. In Gaza there is a huge arsenal of weapons and missiles, and we will have to take care of it with whatever means necessary. The Fajr missile threat has mainly been destroyed, but there could be several more here and there."
"We have a plan in place that is incremental in its use of force. In Gaza there is a huge arsenal of weapons and missiles, and we will have to take care of it with whatever means necessary. The Fajr missile threat has mainly been destroyed, but there could be several more here and there."
Alongside the army's preparations intended to increase
pressure on Hamas, it seems the IDF's higher command predefined a relatively
modest goal for the mission: improvement of the security situation based on
strengthening the IDF's deterrence capabilities. There is no talk of toppling
Hamas or trying to implement any other type of geopolitical rearrangement. At
this stage, the IDF appears to be satisfied with the operation's achievements,
which went according to plan, and apparently believes that from this point on
the success of the past few days can only be blurred.
On Sunday, the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and
Gaza, which was closed over the weekend due to the security situation, was
reopened and Gaza is expected to receive shipments of food and medicine. This
arrangement was coordinated by Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, head of the Civil
Administration, and senior Palestinian Authority officials.
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