After Hamas rejects truce, Israel restarts airstrikes, warns 100,000 people to leave their homes
Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - Israeli bombing resumed this morning in Gaza, after a six hours hiatus following Israel accepted Egypt's ceasefire proposal.
Hamas, which rejected the truce, never suspended its rocket attacks against Israel. A mortar shell fired from Gaza near the strip's northern border killed a 38-year-old Israeli man.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) dropped leaflets and used recorded telephone messages to warn some 100,000 residents of Gaza to leave their homes before 08:00 (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
This appears to be the first step in implementing what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday when faced with Hamas' rejection of the truce proposal.
"If there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire," the Israeli leader said, adding that if Hamas chose to continue the battle it would "pay the price for that decision."
For its part, Hamas' armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said its battle with Israel would "increase in ferocity and intensity".
Meanwhile, 205 people have been killed and more than 1,500 injured. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) also reported on Tuesday that 560 homes had been destroyed.
The houses of senior Hamas leaders Zahar, Jamila Shanti, Fathi Hamas and Ismail Ashkar were among those targeted.
The International Red Cross warned that repeated bombing was devastating Gaza's "fragile water infrastructure", with hundreds of people left without water.
And then there is always the possibility that Israel will launch a ground attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces a dilemma. With right-wing members of his cabinet demanding a ground offensive, he does not want to look weak in domestic politics. Yet, ground fighting would mean Israeli casualties too.
Netanyahu knows that Israelis would prefer to see Hamas diminished and the rocket fire ended through the air campaign. However, if air power does not prove decisive, political pressure will mount for an invasion, and this could alienate Israel's allies.
In fact, US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said whilst Israel had the right to defend itself, "no-one wants a ground war".
For its part, Hamas has lost support in the Gaza Strip, especially because of its economic crisis, and was severely bruised by the Arab Spring.
Hamas was supported in the past, economically as well, by Morsi's Egypt, Iran and Syria, as a branch of the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood.
Then it sided with the rebels fighting in Syria against Bashar al-Assad. Iran has responded by turning off the financial taps
Under the new Egyptian government of President al-Sisi, which considers the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation, not only has Hamas lost Cairo's help, but has seen the latter shut down the tunnels through which it was able to obtain weapons and goods of all sorts and make substantial profits out of it.
Against this backdrop, Hamas came to a sort of political reconciliation with its bitter rival Fatah for a government of national unity. But this has boosted hardline Islamists, particularly Islamic Jihad, which has about 5,000 men compared to 20,000 well-armed Hamas fighters, thanks to Iran.
Now Hamas needs something to earn bragging rights in order to claim victory and get Egypt to lift its economic blockade.
Within Hamas, discussion is now underway in three locations: the leadership in Gaza, headed by Ismail Haniyeh; the leadership abroad, headed by Khaled Mashal; and Egypt-based senior official Mousa Abu Marzook, who is most likely the link between the two.
The Gaza leadership is inclined to accept the initiative and end the current situation. By contrast, Mashal and his camp may take a more radical approach in order to get better terms.
Nothing has been settled, except that people continue to die in Gaza.
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