Israel grants army approval to widen its ground operations

Israel’s army received approval today to broaden its ground operations against Gaza Strip militants who have been barraging Israeli border towns with deadly rocket fire, but no large-scale incursion is in the works, military officials said.

The stepped-up Israeli campaign – which has relied primarily on intensified airstrikes in the past two weeks – has caused Hamas leaders to lie low in recent days.

Today, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas stayed away from a weekly Cabinet meeting in Gaza City.

In the meantime, a lull in internal Palestinian strife appeared to be growing ever more brittle, with rival Hamas and Fatah gunmen clashing briefly, and putting up intimidating roadblocks in and around Gaza City that all but emptied city streets.

Under the new Israeli military orders, larger numbers of troops will be able to enter Gaza to carry out pinpoint raids, the military officials said. But no widespread campaign is expected at this time, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss policy.

Past large-scale offensives have failed to quell the rocket fire.

The authorisation to pour more troops into Gaza – given by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and military chief of staff Lt Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi – came just a day after Olmert said he would let the army do whatever necessary to halt the rocket fire.

Olmert cautioned, however, that there was no failproof solution to the crude rockets the Palestinians are firing.

On Sunday, the second Israeli was killed in a week in an attack on the southern town of Sderot, a frequent target.

Gaza militants fired eight rockets that landed in southern Israel today, slightly injuring one person.

One fell as Peretz, the leader of the Labour Party, voted in party primaries in Sderot.

“If there is an answer to terror, it is that the state of Israel is living and breathing, and in Sderot there are elections,” Peretz said. “Despite everything, Sderot residents will prove that Hamas does not frighten them and will come vote at the polling booths.”

The outcome of the party race could impact the stability of Olmert’s government and the embattled prime minister’s future. Peretz is expected to lose, and both front-runners have said they would work to topple Olmert.

Israel’s airstrike campaign against Palestinian militant targets, meanwhile, entered its 12th day on Monday. About 50 Palestinians, most of them militants, have died in the attacks.

In a private Cabinet session yesterday, Olmert seemed cool to efforts by Egypt and moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to negotiate a new ceasefire, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity, in accordance with civil service rules.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, Abbas’ spokesman, said Monday that the Palestinian president was continuing his efforts to achieve a new truce. Ideas are being put forth to the Palestinian militant factions and will be taken up with the Israelis, he said.

“The assassinations, strikes, detentions carried out by the Israeli army will not realize security, but will lead to serious difficulties that threaten peace and security in the Middle East, and will increase the circle of violence in the region,” Abu Rdeneh said in remarks carried by the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA.

Faction officials have said there could be no truce as long as Israel continues its attacks and wants to limit any cease-fire to Gaza and exclude the West Bank, site of repeated arrest raids.

A Hamas official said a group delegation headed by Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas Syria-based political bureau, would head to Cairo on Tuesday to discuss a possible new truce with Israel as well as a halt to internal Palestinian fighting.

Israeli airstrikes appear to have hit Hamas hard – knocking out key bases, killing several top militants and forcing the movement’s leadership underground. Israel has so far avoided attacks on Hamas leaders – a tactic it used in the past. Hamas is now the senior partner in the Palestinian coalition government.

Israeli missiles have hit near the homes of Haniyeh and Hamas lawmaker Khalil al-Haya, but the army has said the men were not targets.

The Palestinian Cabinet held its weekly meeting on Monday, but Haniyeh didn’t attend – keeping out of sight as he has done since the first attack Thursday on the Shati refugee camp where he lives.

“Ismail Haniyeh did not attend the meeting for security reasons,” Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said.

Hamas also skipped a meeting last night that Palestinian factions convened to discuss the possibility of a new cease-fire, because of security concerns, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Israel’s intensified strikes against Gaza rocket squads coincided with a halt to more than a week of deadly infighting between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah, the two groups that nominally share power in the Palestinian government.

But in an ominous development on Monday, Hamas and Fatah armed men traded fire over a stolen jeep in the Shati refugee camp where Haniyeh lives, and fighters on both sides put up roadblocks in and around nearby Gaza City, in an effort to identify rival fighters.

Once the barriers went up, residents cleared out of the city’s streets, fearing this was a sign that new gunbattles would erupt.