Olmert rules out Gaza invasion
Deflecting rising anger over constant rocket attacks after a boy lost a leg, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today ruled out a broad military operation in the Gaza Strip.
But Israel’s top diplomat warned it will be impossible to reach a peace agreement under these circumstances.
Residents of the battered town of Sderot blocked the main road into Jerusalem as the Cabinet met, demanding government action after doctors amputated eight-year-old Osher Twito’s leg following a rocket attack that also wounded his 19-year-old brother.
Along with clamouring for a full-scale invasion of northern Gaza to take over the areas where militants have been launching the rockets, there were calls from the Cabinet for assassinating Hamas political leaders and to wipe out a Gaza district.
Over the weekend, with growing defiance and confidence, Hamas militants called on Israelis to flee from border towns as the rockets rained down. The two brothers were hurt last night when a rocket exploded in Sderot, one of dozens that hit in and near the town less than half a mile from the fence around Gaza.
The serious injury to the small child galvanised Israeli outrage.
“He loves playing football, but he will never play again,” Osher’s mother, Iris Twito, said. “How can he play now with no leg?”
Cabinet Minister Meir Sheetrit said: “We must take a neighbourhood in Gaza and wipe it off the map,” after warning citizens to flee.
At nightfall, about 20 Israeli army vehicles rolled into northern Gaza, where most of the rockets are fired, witnesses said. The military called the operation “routine.” In an exchange of gunfire at the border, a Palestinian militant was killed.
In a public statement at the beginning of the weekly Israeli Cabinet meeting, Mr Olmert said the upsurge in Palestinian rocket attacks is a response to Israel’s own military strikes, claiming that 200 Gaza militants have been killed in recent months “as a result of initiated, aggressive, planned and comprehensive activity” by the Israeli military and security.
As the demonstrators from Sderot approached his office, Mr Olmert declared, “anger is not an operational plan.” Instead, he said: “We must act in a systematic and orderly fashion over time.”
Mr Olmert indicated that Israel might target Hamas political leaders. “We will continue to reach all the responsible terrorists, including those who dispatch and operate them,” he said.
On his way to Germany for talks later tonight, Mr Olmert called for patience. “There is no solution of one operation or one bomb,” he said. “It takes time.”
Hamas overran Gaza in June, expelling forces loyal to moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza’s Hamas government is headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, deposed by Mr Abbas after the takeover. Mr Abbas named a new government that effectively rules only the West Bank.
