Israeli aircraft blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities and other targets throughout the Gaza Strip yesterday, at the launch of what the military said would be a "prolonged" offensive against Hamas militants who bombarded Israeli towns with rockets.
The offensive dashed hopes that Israel's recently completed Gaza withdrawal would help restart peace talks and left a seven-month-old ceasefire on the brink of collapse. The fighting also raised already intense pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to confront militants, and weakened Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as he parries a challenge to his leadership.
In a further sign the truce was unraveling, the military arrested 207 Palestinian wanted men in the West Bank overnight, most of them members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements. The military has conducted sweeping arrests of Islamic Jihad militants since the February ceasefire, but this is the first time it has detained large numbers of Hamas members.
PHOTO: AP
Among those arrested were Hassan Yousef and Mohammed Ghazal, two of the most prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank, Hamas officials said.
A group of senior Israeli Cabinet officials, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, approved the military operation in Gaza at an emergency meeting late Saturday after Hamas militants fired nearly 40 rockets from Gaza at southern Israeli towns. The rocket barrage, which slightly wounded six Israelis, was the Islamic group's first major attack since Israel concluded its Gaza pullout two weeks ago.
"It was decided to launch a prolonged and constant attack on Hamas," said Major General Yisrael Ziv, the army's head of operations, hinting that Israel was preparing to resume its assassination of top Hamas leaders, a practice suspended after the February ceasefire. Asked whether the leaders were in danger, he said: "Let them decide for themselves."
Israel killed dozens of Hamas leaders, including the group's founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, during more than four years of violence.
Ziv later told Army Radio that a ground operation wasn't being planned yet, but if one is deemed necessary, "then we won't refrain."
Israeli military officials said the attacks were aimed at any group possessing weapons, and other small groups were targeted. But the offensive was focused on Hamas, the largest Palestinian militant organization.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "the Israeli bombing in Gaza and the arrests in the West Bank lead to one direction, and that's the collapse of the ceasefire,which serves no side's interest." He called on US President George W. Bush to work to calm the conflict "so we can sustain the cessation of violence."
The Palestinian WAFA news agency reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Abbas on Saturday evening, and urged him to preserve the truce and stop the situation from deteriorating further.
Israeli police, meanwhile, were on their second-highest level of alert against terror attacks, and have sent reinforcements to major cities and public places.
The crisis erupted ahead of a major challenge to Sharon's leadership of the hardline Likud Party and could strengthen the hand of Sharon's main rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, who predicted the Gaza pullout would encourage militant attacks. A Likud vote Monday could determine whether Sharon quits the party -- a move likely to bring early elections and lead Sharon to form a new centrist party to capture mainstream voters.
Israeli security officials said "Operation First Rain" would include artillery fire, air strikes and other targeted attacks. The operation will grow in intensity, leading up to a ground invasion in several days unless Abbas's Palestinian Authority halts the rocket attacks or Hamas ends them itself, officials said. A ground operation would require final approval from the full Cabinet, they added.
Mid-morning, Israeli aircraft dropped flyers in northern Gaza advising civilians to leave places where rocket launchers are located, the military said.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS