Protective Edge: Ground campaign begins
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, last night instructed the IDF to commence ground action to strike at the terrorist tunnels from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory .
The IDF reports:
Weapons found after tunnel incident
Hamas terrorists used such a tunnel to infiltrate into Israel this morning in order to perpetrate a large-scale attack against Israeli citizens. The IDF successfully thwarted this terrorist action.
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yaalon also instructed the IDF to be prepared for an expansion of the ground action. The directive for ground action was approved by the Security Cabinet after Israel agreed to the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, whereas Hamas rejected it and continued firing rockets at Israeli cities.
Hamas also did not honor the humanitarian ceasefire initiated by the UN and continued firing at Israeli cities during the lull. In light of Hamas’ criminal and relentless aggression, as well as the dangerous attempt to infiltrate Israeli territory, Israel must act to defend its citizens.
Operation Protective Edge will continue until it reaches its goal – restoring quiet to Israel’s citizens for a prolonged period, while inflicting a significant blow to the infrastructures of Hamas and the other terrorist organizations.
From Israel, J-Wire’s Michael Kuttner reports: “Israel begins a ground operation to destroy tunnels in Gaza which are being used to hide, manufacture and fire rockets against Israel. In addition these tunnels are command centers for Hamas and are used to infiltrate terrorists onto Israeli territory.
Prior to this phase Hamas unleashed multiple barrages of rockets against central Israel.
The White House & State Dept. caution Israel to avoid civilian casualties which seems rather a pointless exercise seeing as Hamas is using the civilian population as human shields. The American record on avoiding civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq is not exactly exemplary and therefore can be seen as just another irrelevant piece of total detachment from realities on the ground. “
