CAIRO: “The recent escalation and loss of life – as well as the disruption of the southern residents' daily routine – will eventually make it necessary for the army to launch a major offensive in Gaza,” IDF chief Benny Gantz told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday. Referring to last week's bloody fighting between Gaza-bound Islamic Jihad and Israeli military, Gantz applauded a hit on an alleged terror cell of the resistance group. “The attack on the cell managed to delay the development of Islamic Jihad's rocket-firing system,” the army chief said. On Monday morning, a naval police building in Gaza was struck by Israeli rockets. The hit left one Palestinian police officer in his twenties killed and four others wounded, one of them seriously. According to Israeli news media, the airstrike also knocked out electrical power for more than 100,000 people in Gaza. The strike was likely to be an answer to a homemade projectile fired from Gaza, which landed earlier in the Shaar Hanegev area. No injuries were reported of this airstrike. These firings prompted the Palestinian death toll to rise to a total of 13 since new violence broke out last weekend. Here, two subsequent deals to lay down arms brokered by Egypt were broken, as Israeli rockets killed first five, then 4 Islamic Jihad militants from the group's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigade. Rockets from Gaza likewise killed one Israeli in the coastal city of Ashkelon in southern Israel. Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister denied talks of a renewed ceasefire with Islamic Jihad militants in a comment on the recent upsurge of violence. Dubbed “Bloody Sunday” by Gaza TV News website, last weekend saw the most severe fighting between Israel and the coastal enclave since August. Then, 27 Palestinians and one Israeli were killed, after Israel bombarded the strip, blaming a Gaza militant group for an earlier attack killing 8 people in the Israeli coastal city of Eilat. Benny Gantz also mentioned this attack, saying the IDF's activity along the western border between Israel and Egypt has changed from thwarting infiltrations to preparations for actual terror attacks. “Sinai has become an area in which the many infrastructures allow for hostile terrorist activity – both from Gaza and global Jihad – while undermining Egyptian sovereignty,” he said. Gantz said he has instructed the 30 contractors working on the newly initiated security fence along the Israeli-Egyptian border to pick up the pace and complete the job by the end of 2012. In a report by the independent Trident commission in the United Kingdom that was published in the Guardian newspaper on Monday, Israel is reported to be working on improving its nuclear weapons capabilities. By extending the range of Israel's Jericho 3 land-to-land missiles, they will have the capabilities of transcontinental missiles. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern last week at the recent escalation of violence and bloodshed in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. “He hopes that the parties will fully respect the calm as brokered by Egypt,” a UN statement then noted, referring to the reported ceasefires organized by Egypt. The deadly firing back and forth have taken place just weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to a much celebrated prisoner exchange freeing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from Hamas capture in exchange of 1,027 Palestinians. Out of these however, 550 prisoners still have not been freed and are awaiting a final conclusion to the deal. Commenting on the swap, senior United Nations officials said they hoped it would lead the two sides to make further compromises towards an eventual peace agreement to end the long-running conflict. BM
