Israeli troops mass on Gaza border

GAZA, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Israeli troops massed on the Gaza border Thursday, poised for a possible ground invasion, and the military warned residents to stay away from Hamas locations.

A ground invasion is "a distinct possibility," Israeli military officials told British newspaper The Independent.

The Israeli military dropped leaflets over parts of the Gaza Strip warning residents to stay away from "Hamas operatives and facilities and those of other terror organizations that pose a risk to your safety."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel was "prepared to expand the operation," code-named Operation Pillar of Cloud, that began Wednesday with intense airstrikes that killed Hamas military commander Ahmed al-Jabari as he drove through Gaza City and struck some two dozen other targets, including Hamas weapons-storage sites, some of them hidden in residential buildings, Israel and witnesses said.

At least nine people, including civilians, were reported killed in the attacks. One of the dead was the 11-month-old son of a BBC employee, the network said.

At least three Palestinians were reported killed by a fresh Israeli airstrike Thursday, the BBC said.

Israel said it launched the attacks in response to four years of persistent Palestinian rocket fire into Israel. More than 800 rockets had been fired into Israel from Gaza so far this year alone, the Israeli military said.

"The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control chain of the Hamas leadership, as well as its terrorist infrastructure," an Israeli military spokesperson said.

Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist sociopolitical organization that governs the Gaza Strip and has a military wing called the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said Israelis "opened the gates of hell upon themselves" with the attack.

Hamas said the attacks amounted to a declaration of war, and it quickly launched more than 50 rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli military said. Several barrages struck the city of Beersheba, shattering windows and damaging cars but causing no injuries, Israel said.

Israeli civil-defense authorities, anticipating retaliation, instructed residents within a 25-mile radius of Gaza not to go to school or work Thursday. At least 1 million Israelis slept in bomb shelters overnight, the military said on Twitter Thursday.

The escalation in hostilities prompted Egypt to recall its ambassador and demand meetings of the U.N. Security Council and the Arab League.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the White House said Wednesday night.

Obama told both leaders the United States supported Israel's right to self-defense from the rocket attacks, the White House said in a statement.

The statement said Obama and Netanyahu "agreed that Hamas needs to stop its attacks on Israel to allow the situation to de-escalate." It said Obama urged Netanyahu to "make every effort to avoid civilian casualties."

Obama told Morsi Washington condemned the rocket fire. "The two leaders agreed on the importance of working to de-escalate the situation as quickly as possible," the White House said.

Morsi had called the Israeli actions "wanton aggression on the Gaza Strip."

The United States and Israel classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday night to discuss the airstrikes but took no substantive action.

Council President and Indian Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters after the 90-minute closed-door meeting council members would issue a communique stating the emergency meeting took place.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office said earlier he spoke by phone with Netanyahu and Morsi about the "deteriorating situation."

Ban told Netanyahu he was concerned about "an alarming escalation of indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and the targeted killing by Israel of a Hamas military operative in Gaza," his office said.

He encouraged Morsi "to prevent any further deterioration," the office said.

Source: http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/6145022

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