Everybody sing... "Here we go again... same old sh!t again..."
It was just too good to be true. I doubt Israel will just sit there making small retaliations for all the rockets sent their way. I smell a plan.. *sniff*
GAZA CITY (AP) -- Israel launched a "crushing" retaliation Saturday against Hamas in Gaza with deadly airstrikes, troops massed at the border and a planned ground incursion.
The Israeli action came after militants fired 35 rockets at Israeli towns -- their first major attack since the Gaza pullout.
Israeli aircraft struck three suspected weapons-storage facilities in Gaza and a school in a crowded Gaza City neighborhood late Saturday and early Sunday, wounding 17 people, Palestinian officials said.
Earlier, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at cars carrying militants in Gaza City, killing two Hamas militants.
The escalation threatened to derail a shaky seven-month-old truce and quashed hopes that Israel's ceding the coastal strip to the Palestinians would invigorate peacemaking.
Israel's reprisals drew new Hamas threats of revenge, while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas came under growing Israeli pressure to confront the militants.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told security chiefs in a meeting that "the ground of Gaza should shake" and that he wanted to exact a high price from Palestinians everywhere, not just the militants, participants said.
The crisis erupted just before a major challenge to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's leadership in his hardline Likud Party, and could strengthen the hand of Sharon's main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has warned the Gaza pullout endangers Israel.
A Likud vote Monday could determine whether Sharon quits the party -- a move that would likely bring early elections and prompt Sharon to form a new centrist party to capture mainstream voters.
On Saturday evening, Sharon convened his Security Cabinet, a group of senior ministers, to approve a series of military operations proposed by Mofaz, culminating with a ground incursion into Gaza.
Security officials said that "Operation First Rain" would include artillery fire, air strikes and other targeted attacks. The operation will grow in intensity, leading up to a ground operation unless the Palestinian security takes action to halt the rocket attacks or Hamas ends the attacks itself.
The ground operation would require final approval from the full Cabinet, the officials added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicize the operation's details.
The officials said the army planned to create a buffer zone in northern Gaza by ordering residents to leave their homes, and said a closure barring Palestinian laborers from entering Israel would remain in effect.
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