MIDDLE EAST:Israeli politicians stepped up calls for a major military assault on the Gaza Strip yesterday after Palestinian militants fired a rocket into an army base in southern Israel, injuring dozens of soldiers.
The Israeli military said 69 soldiers were injured in the attack early yesterday morning. Hospital staff said many were suffering shock, but 11 soldiers had moderate to severe injuries and one was critically ill.
The soldiers were all new recruits undergoing basic training at the Zikim army base just north of Gaza. When the rocket struck they were asleep in tents in the open. As news of the attack broke, parents of the soldiers arrived at the entrance to the base looking for news. The soldiers were due to complete their training yesterday before heading home for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, which starts tomorrow.
Yesterday's attack quickly brought new calls from senior Israeli politicians for a military operation in Gaza to halt the firing of the makeshift rockets, known as Qassams. The rockets are crude and unguided but have killed about a dozen people in southern Israel over the past five years.
"The question is not whether to create deterrence, but when," said Avi Dichter, the public security minister. Another cabinet minister, Eli Yishai, told army radio: "Long ago, several years ago, we should have responded strongly . . . In the end we will have no choice but to act." Israel has repeatedly tried large-scale military operations to halt the rockets but with little success. A series of military incursions last year left 400 Palestinians dead, at least half of them civilians, but did not halt the rockets.
Yesterday the Israeli army said its forces struck at an area used by militants for the rocket attack. But in Gaza, a health official said four civilians were wounded, including children. On a single day last week, Israeli fire killed 10 Palestinian militants in Gaza. Two weeks ago three Palestinian children from the same family were killed by an Israeli strike that the military said was targeted at rocket launchers.
Hamas, the Islamist movement which won Palestinian elections last year, now effectively controls Gaza after routing its rival Fatah following months of near civil war. However, it is widely thought that the dozens of Qassam rockets fired in recent weeks have been launched by Islamic Jihad, another, smaller group. Hamas has admitted firing mortars at the crossing points into Gaza. Yesterday its mortars hit the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is the only crossing now functioning into Gaza, forcing it to close.
Yesterday, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, another militant group, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack on Zikim. A Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, described the attack as a "victory from God".
Hamas, which considers itself as a movement of resistance, has done little to halt the rocket fire. Israel says it holds Hamas responsible. "It doesn't matter which terror group took responsibility. Gaza is totally controlled by Hamas, and it has the ability to stop this and decided not to," said Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni. "I think we have tools to do this, tools that are not only military."
Although the Israeli cabinet recently decided not to launch a big military incursion into Gaza, it has discussed other options, including cutting off electricity, water and fuel supplies. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert met again with his cabinet and security chiefs yesterday to consider a response to the rocket attack.