TEL AVIV: Israel said it has regained control of its border with Gaza and could be poised to launch a punishing ground assault into the Hamas-controlled, densely populated strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea, even as Israeli and militant forces bombarded each other with hours of missile attacks.
Four days after the Islamist Hamas group shocked Israel with a massive barrage of missile fire and broke through border barriers, Israeli Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss of the 98th Paratroopers Division said the military is now “moving into the offensive … to change the reality within Gaza to prevent such a thing from happening again.”
Although a ground invasion was not a certainty, Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have strongly signaled it is in the offing.
Israel called up another 60,000 reservists, adding to the 300,000 already summoned to fight in the Jewish state’s biggest conflict since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
As night fell in Israel, rocket warning sirens blared in the coastal city of Ashkelon just north of the Gaza border as Hamas targeted it with numerous rockets.
Earlier, Hamas aimed missiles at Tel Aviv and nearby Ben-Gurion International Airport, which the Palestinian militant group said on the Telegram social media site was “in response to the targeting of civilians” by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces launched dozens of missiles at Gaza, turning buildings into rubble in an instant, forcing surviving civilians to scramble for their lives.
(VOA)
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