Israel launches 'prolonged' offensive against Hamas

Israeli aircraft blasted suspected Palestinian weapons facilities and other militant targets throughout the Gaza Strip early today, at the launch of what the military said would be a “prolonged” offensive against Hamas militants for bombarding Israeli towns with rockets.

The offensive in Gaza dashed hopes that Israel’s recently completed Gaza withdrawal would help restart peace talks and left a seven-month-old ceasefire on the brink of collapse.

The fighting also raised already intense pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to confront militants.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, the Israeli military arrested 150 Palestinian wanted men, most of them members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, in an operation that remained under way this morning.

The military has conducted sweeping arrests of Islamic Jihad militants since the February ceasefire, but this is the first time since the truce that it has detained large numbers of Hamas members.

Among those arrested were Hassan Yousef, the most prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank, Hamas officials said.

The Israeli Security Cabinet, a group of senior officials led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, approved the military operation in Gaza at an emergency meeting late last night after Hamas militants fired nearly 40 rockets from Gaza at southern Israeli towns.

The rocket barrage, which slightly wounded six Israelis, was the Islamic group’s first major attack since Israel concluded its Gaza pullout last week.

“It was decided to launch a prolonged and constant attack n Hamas,” said Major General Yisrael Ziv, the army’s head of operations, hinting that Israel was preparing to resume its assassination of top Hamas leaders, a practice suspended after the February ceasefire. Asked whether the leaders were in danger, he said: “Let them decide for themselves.”

Israel killed dozens of Hamas leaders, including the group’s founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, during more than four years of violence.

Israeli security officials said Operation First Rain would include artillery fire, air strikes and other targeted attacks.

The operation will grow in intensity, leading up to a ground invasion in several days unless Abbas’s Palestinian Authority halts the rocket attacks or Hamas ends the attacks itself, officials said.

The ground operation would require final approval from the full Cabinet, they added.

Palestinian Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khoussa called the plan a “serious escalation that will lead to a new era of violence”.

Shortly after the ministers’ decision, Israeli aircraft struck a series of targets throughout Gaza, including three weapons-storage facilities and a Gaza City school the military said served as a front for Hamas. Other targets included the offices of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a small militant group.

Nineteen people were slightly wounded in the attacks, and the buildings were heavily damaged.

The Popular Resistance Committees, another armed group, said the home of one of its commanders was targeted. The commander, Amer Karmout, survived the attack but two relatives were wounded, the group said.

Israeli military officials said the attacks were aimed at any group possessing weapons. But the offensive was focused on Hamas, the largest Palestinian militant group.

The Gaza City air strike caused heavy damage to the Al-Arkam school, which Yassin founded. The army said Hamas used the building to raise funds for attacks, recruit militants and assist families of suicide bombers.

The attack occurred in a crowded neighbourhood, damaging at least five nearby homes, knocking out electricity. Fifteen people were slightly wounded, medical officials said.

Yesterday, an Israeli aircraft struck two cars carrying Hamas militants, killing two local field commanders. The attack signalled a resumption of targeted killings, albeit of relatively low-level militants.

The chain of events began on Friday afternoon, with an explosion at a Hamas rally in Gaza’s crowded Jebaliya refugee camp, in which at least 15 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded.

Hamas blamed Israel for that blast, and said its rocket attacks on Israeli towns were meant as retaliation. However, the Palestinian Authority held the Islamic militants responsible, saying weapons were mishandled.

In a speech yesterday, Abbas renewed demands that armed groups stop flaunting their weapons in public. “We are required more than ever before to end this frequent tragedy that resulted from chaos and military parades in residential areas,” he said.

Hamas called Abbas’ position “a stab in the back of the martyrs” and a blow to efforts to work out differences between the factions.

Israel indefinitely sealed the West Bank and Gaza, barring thousands of Palestinians from jobs in Israel. Officials also said the army planned to order residents of northern Gaza to leave their homes so Israel could create a “buffer zone”.

Ziv, the Israeli commander, and other officials said they hoped the military campaign would encourage Palestinians to put pressure on Hamas to halt its activities.