Israel carried out a blistering offensive of more than 20 air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, assassinating Hamas? military commander Ahmed Jabari and targeting the armed group?s training facilities and rocket launchers in Israel?s most intense attack on the territory in nearly four years.
?We must be clear that Israel will not tolerate a situation in which there is incessant [rocket] fire on our citizens. No life-loving country would accept this situation,? Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said at a news conference Wednesday. ??We are still at the beginning of the event, not at the end, and we expect some complicated tests ahead.?
The onslaught shattered hopes that a truce mediated on Tuesday by Egypt could pull the two sides back from the brink of war after five days of escalating Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli strikes at militant targets.
Israel said the airstrikes, launched in response to days of rocket fire out of Hamas-ruled Gaza, were the beginning of a broader operation against the Islamic militants codenamed ?Pillar of Defence.? Israeli defence officials said a ground operation was a strong possibility in the coming days though they stressed no decisions had been made and much would depend on Hamas? reaction. There were no immediate signs of extraordinary troop deployments along the border.
?Today we relayed a clear message to the Hamas organization and other terrorist organizations,? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. ?And if there is a need, the [Israel Defence Forces] are prepared to broaden the operation. We will continue to do everything in order to protect our citizens.?
Meanwhile, Hamas immediately called for revenge were broadcast over radio after Al-Jabari?s death.
?The occupation has opened the gates of hell,? Hamas?s armed wing said. Smaller groups also vowed to strike back.
?Israel has declared war on Gaza and they will bear the responsibility for the consequences,? Islamic Jihad said.
Southern Israeli communities within rocket range of Gaza were on full alert, and schools were ordered closed for Thursday. About one million Israelis live in range of Gaza?s relatively primitive but lethal rockets, supplemented in recent months by longer-range, more accurate systems.
?The days we face in the south will, in my estimation, prove protracted,? Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, Israel?s chief military spokesman, told Channel 2 TV.
The Obama administration responded to the flareup by strongly condemning Hamas, an Islamist group shunned by the West as an obstacle to peace.
?There is no justification for the violence that Hamas and other terrorist organizations are employing against the people of Israel,? said Mark Toner, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman.
?We call on those responsible to stop these cowardly acts immediately. We support Israel?s right to defend itself, and we encourage Israel to continue to take every effort to avoid civilian casualties.?
Jabari, the shadowy Hamas military chief killed in the initial missile strike, had long topped the Jewish state?s most-wanted list for masterminding a string of deadly attacks.
One was the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier in a complex cross-border raid that killed two other soldiers.
Jabari, a former history student who spent 13 years in Israeli prisons, also commanded Hamas fighters during a 2007 takeover of Gaza in which they drove out forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
During nine years as leader of the Hamas Izzedine al Qassam Brigades, Jabari largely stayed out of the public eye. His highest profile appearance came in October 2011, when he escorted the captured Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, out of Gaza in a swap for about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Jabari was born in 1960 in Gaza City. He began as a member of Abbas? Fatah movement, but switched his allegiance to Hamas during his time in Israeli prisons.
Jonathan Kay: In Gaza, Hamas military leader Ahmed Jaabari got what he deserved
In general terms, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires a political solution: If it were merely a matter of military might, Israel could have declared victory decades ago. A two-state solution ? which Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas both nominally seek ? will require deals to be struck on borders, the status of Jerusalem, water rights and refugees.
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After Israel released him in 1995, he worked for a Hamas-run support group for prisoners. In 1998, he was jailed by Palestinian security forces in Gaza for his involvement with the Hamas military wing. Jabari was released two years later, after Israel shelled Gaza prisons as part of its crackdown on a Palestinian uprising.
In 2003, Jabari became the de facto commander of the Hamas military wing after then-chief Mohammed Deif was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack. Jabari survived four attempts by Israel to kill him. In 2004, an air strike on Jabari?s house killed his son, Mohammed, a brother and three other relatives.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but still controls its airspace, seacoast and all but one of its land crossings.
Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron hand since the 2007 takeover, deepening the political split with Abbas. Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.
The takeover deepened the isolation of Hamas and prompted the group to rely increasingly on Iran and Syria. Jabari was instrumental in developing the Hamas military arsenal and the group?s networks in Iran, Sudan and Lebanon.
The Hamas founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, though the group has been grappling with its political direction in recent years.
Founded in Gaza in 1987, Hamas carried out scores of suicide bombings in Israel, killing hundreds of Israelis, but halted most such attacks several years ago. Gaza militants, including those from Hamas, have fired thousands of mortars and rockets at Israel in the past decade, drawing Israeli retaliation.
Jabari was considered close to Hamas hard-liner Mahmoud Zahar, a Gaza strongman. In 2011, Jabari wrote in a Hamas publication that ?as long as the Jews occupy our land, they have one thing (in store), death, or they leave the occupied Palestinian territories.?
Files from Ibrahim Barzak and Josef Federman, The Associated Press, and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters
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