<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile Ñ Israel debating military response to Hamas after renewed rocket attacks

Israel debating military response to Hamas after renewed rocket attacks

Monday, February 2, 2009   E-Mail this story   Free Headline Alerts

JERUSALEM Ñ Less than two weeks after its unilateral ceasefire, Israel's government remains at odds within over a response to renewed Hamas missile strikes.

Officials said the Cabinet of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was split over a military response to Hamas and other missile and rocket attacks on Israel over the last week. The division is between those who call for another ground invasion of the Gaza Strip against those who want any response limited to Israeli air strikes.

"I asked Defense Minister Ehud Barak to instruct the Israel Defense Forces, as his position requires, to prepare an Israeli response that is required by the circumstances that have been created as a result of this firing," Olmert said on Feb. 1. "Such an Israeli action and such an Israeli response will come at a time and place of our choosing."

Officials said Olmert has pressed for an Israeli military escalation in an effort to deter Hamas and its Palestinian militia allies in the Gaza Strip. They said the options include heavy air strikes and limited infantry incursions.

"The state of Israel has a difficult decision to make," former Israeli military intelligence research division chief, [Res.] Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror said. "If it does not want to reach a situation in which Hamas cannot strike, it must occupy Gaza for a long time. Otherwise, Israel accepts an enemy that fires whenever it feels like it." Officials said Hamas has been encouraged by its leadership in Damascus as well as Iran and Syria to sustain missile and rocket fire into Israel in advance of elections, scheduled for Feb. 10. They said Hamas has assessed that Israel's government would not launch massive retaliation to avoid a confrontation with the United States.

"If the smuggling and firing continue, then we should conclude that we will be unable to overcome developments in the Gaza Strip under Hamas rule," Vice Premier Haim Ramon said. "I call for an immediate and definitive response."

[Hours later, Israel Air Force jets struck a Hamas military target in the central Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said the building was empty.]

Officials said Hamas has also accelerated weapons smuggling from neighboring Egypt. They said Egyptian troops, despite the installation of cameras and sensors along the Gaza border with the Sinai Peninsula have failed to respond to renewed tunnel construction in the divided city of Rafah.

"Two weeks after the ceasefire, terrorists that are not Hamas are challenging Hamas and conducting attacks for a renewed escalation," Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said. "Hamas, for its part, has been deterred and is honoring the ceasefire, but is not deterring the others enough."

Quietly, officials said, the Cabinet has examined the prospect of recapturing portions of the Gaza Strip, particularly the Gaza border with the Sinai Peninsula. They said Olmert, Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni Ñ expecting Hamas and Egypt to agree to a ceasefire with Israel Ñ remain opposed to such an option.

"We have no intention of embarking on Operation Cast Lead [Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip in January 2009] No. 2," Barak said. "We said there would be a response [to Hamas fire] and we responded."

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