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Israel intensifies its ground and air offensive against Hamas in Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip

2021-05-14T06:59:09.616Z


"I said we would charge a very high price to Hamas," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the army's large-scale operation that escalates violence following Israeli aerial bombardments and rockets fired from Palestinian territories.


The Israeli Army announced on Thursday that its Armed Forces were carrying out a ground attack against Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip, a military action that represents a significant escalation of violence after the deadly aerial bombardments and Israeli artillery bombardments of the last days.

Initially,

the Army had said that Israeli ground forces had entered

the Gaza Strip, but later retracted that statement. 

An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, clarified that the Israeli troops had not entered by land, suggesting the possibility that the attacks were carried out with artillery fire from outside.

Conricus did not provide further details.

"Currently there are ground forces deployed along the border area and from there they are engaging and attacking the Gaza Strip," Conricus said.

Palestinians inspect their home destroyed after Israeli airstrikes in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Lahiya on Thursday, May 13, 2021.

For now, it is unknown whether the Israeli incursion is a limited attempt to destroy the bases from which rockets have been launched against its territory, or to kill leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian organization (considered terrorist by Israel and other allied countries) that controls Gaza;

or if, on the contrary, it is an invasion like the one that occurred in 2014, which caused the death of more than 2,000 Palestinians.  

The Israeli army did not elaborate on the operation, but in recent days between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers have gathered at the border, according to military officials.

Those figures suggest a more limited operation because a large-scale invasion would require many more troops.

"I said that we would charge a very high price to Hamas and the rest of the terrorist organizations

,

"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement issued shortly after the offensive began.

“We are doing this and we will continue to do it with great force.

This operation will continue as long as necessary to restore peace and security in the State of Israel, "he added.

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Hamas launched a large number of missiles at Israel on Thursday, while the Israelis hit the Gaza Strip with more airstrikes and artillery, and also called in thousands of reservists for the ground incursion this Friday at dawn (local time) . 

Previous fighting between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, including a devastating war in 2014, had been largely confined to the impoverished and blockaded Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip and to Israeli border communities.

But this time the conflict appears to be spreading further afield and more widely than at any time since the Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Hostilities have intensified in recent days despite the efforts of Egyptian mediators who held face-to-face meetings with both parties.

The attacks announced this Thursday by the Israeli Army come after several days of clashes.

Since Monday, Israel has hit more than 600 targets it described as belonging to Hamas, as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad weaponry and infrastructure, and has killed more than 30 militants, according to Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. 

A Palestinian watches the destruction of a building hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, Thursday, May 13, 2021.

The attacks

have killed more than 103 people in Gaza, including 27 children

, according to Palestinian officials.

Seven Israelis, including a child, were killed in rocket fire from Gaza, while a soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, according to Israeli authorities.

A spokesman for the Hamas military wing played down the Israeli raids.

"The enemy carries out spectacle raids aimed at sabotage and destruction," he said.

"It will not affect the capabilities of the resistance."

With information from The Associated Press

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-05-14

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