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Gaza City/Tel
Aviv: Tension
escalates Thursday across the Middle
East as Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group which controls the
Gaza Strip, continue to exchange fire amid the worst outbreak of
violence since the Israeli assault on the territory nearly four
years ago.
Three Israelis died in the northern town of Kiryat Malachi on
Thursday after a rocket fired from Gaza hit an apartment building,
AL Jazeera reported.
Israeli sources said two rockets hit Tel Aviv - one landed in the
sea while another missile landed in an uninhabited area of
Israel's commercial centre.
Air raid sirens sent residents running for shelter in Tel Aviv, a
Mediterranean city that has not been hit by a rocket since the
1991 Gulf War.
Islamic Jihad, another Gaza-based Palestinian group, said that it
had fired one of the rockets that hit Tel Aviv.
On the other hand, at least 19 Palestinians, including two children, have been killed
and more than 150 others wounded as of Thursday in fighting which
began with an aerial attack that killed Ahmad Jabari, Hamas
military commander who was accused by Israel for overseeing
attacks against civilians.
Late on Thursday, Israel began moving troops towards the Gaza
Strip and Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, authorised the
call-up of 30,000 reservists for a possible ground invasion.
At least a dozen lorries carrying tanks and armoured vehicles were
seen moving towards the border area, while buses ferried soldiers.
While southern Israeli areas near Gaza have long coped with rocket
fire, the attacks on the Tel Aviv area illustrated the significant
capabilities that Hamas has developed.
Palestinian fighters had previously hit Rishon Lezion before but
never reached Tel Aviv, roughly 70km north of the Gaza Strip.
Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister hit back on Hamas
leadrship and justifies airstrikes on Gaza and referred to the Israeli attacks on Gaza as "surgical".
"It is important to understand one simple point: there is no moral
symmetry between the terrorists in Gaza and Israel," he said on Thursday
"They are committing double war crimes: they fire at Israeli
civilians and hide behind Palestinian civilians", he added.
The sudden conflict pours oil on the
fire of a Middle East already tense with two years of revolution
and an out-of-control civil war in Syria.
Mohamed Morsi, the Egyptian president, spoke to US President
Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, over phone and
discussed the Gaza escalation with them.
Taher Nuno, Hamas government spokesperson, said that Egypt would
send a delegation headed by Hesham Kandil, Egyptian prime
minister, to Gaza on Friday.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Israel's bombing campaign
against the Gaza Strip an act of savagery
against the Palestinians.
"Another savage aggression against the Gaza Strip has begun,"
Chavez told a cabinet meeting on Thursday televised by state-run
TV.
"Once again, the state of Israel is bombing the Gaza Strip", he
said.
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