Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — The Israel Army has restricted operations to the perimeter of the Gaza Strip.

Military sources said infantry, armored, engineering and special forces were deployed along a 2.5 kilometer zone along the eastern Gaza frontier with Israel.

The sources said the Israeli units, which sustained at least two casualties, were searching for and destroying weapons tunnels and rocket launchers.

“Last night, our forces commenced a ground operation in order to strike at the terrorist tunnels that run from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on July 18. “I remind you that it was through such a tunnel that Hamas terrorists infiltrated into our territory yesterday morning in order to perpetrate a large scale attack against Israel’s citizens.”

Western diplomatic sources said the Army was operating along the 60-kilometer Gaza frontier. They said around 20,000 troops were deployed in the ground operation while additional armor and infantry units were prepared to join the war.

So far, the military has reported the discovery and destruction of at least 34 tunnels. At the same time, suspected Hamas and other Palestinian militia strongholds were the targets of air and artillery strikes throughout the Gaza Strip.

Military sources said dozens of Hamas weapons tunnels were operating throughout the Gaza Strip. They said the tunnel network contained rocket launchers, maintenance and command and control posts.

“We have struck hard on the two main strategic assets of Hamas: the rockets and these tunnels,” Israeli military spokesman Col. Peter Lerner said. “I can’t promise that when we leave the territory we will have exposed
all of the tunnels.”

The military reported that more than 1,700 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were said to have a combined pre-war stockpile of 10,000 missiles and rockets.

“I think that we have hit and destroyed 30 to 40 percent of the rockets,” Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Mordechai Almoz said.

  Benjamin Netanyahu, Brig. Gen. Mordechai Almoz, Col. Peter Lerner, Gaza Strip, Israeli ground troops target Hamas assets on Gaza perimeter