Israeli military preparing for Gaza operation

By Middle East correspondent , wires

Updated November 02, 2011 08:35:45

Israel has reportedly ordered its military to prepare for a ground operation in Gaza.

The move is aimed at stopping the recent spate of rocket attacks into Israel which killed an Israeli man and wounded several others at the weekend.

The order comes one day after Palestine was granted membership to the United Nation's cultural body UNESCO, angering Israel and the US, who said the move threatened peace talks.

Israeli warplanes have launched a series of strikes in Gaza since Saturday, killing at least 11 Palestinians suspected of involvement in launching dozens of rockets and mortars into Israel.

For days an Israeli drone has been flying above Gaza, searching for more rocket launchers.

Now a military official says the government has authorised the army to take all necessary steps to stop the rocket fire, including a ground operation.

The decision stops short of ordering tanks to roll into Gaza.

Efforts to broker a lasting ceasefire have so far failed.

Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the accelerated construction of 2,000 housing units in areas in the West Bank and around Jerusalem, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The statement came after Mr Netanyahu called a special cabinet session to discuss the Palestinians' membership of UNESCO.

A senior government official said after the meeting the cabinet had also decided to halt money transfers to the Palestinian Authority as a temporary measure until a final decision was made.

Israel routinely transfers funds it collects from customs and other levies on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.

"You can't demand from the Israeli public to continue to show restraint when the Palestinian leadership continues to slam the door in their face," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The statement said the new building will be in "areas that in any future arrangement will remain in Israel's hands".

The official said 1,650 of the new tenders are for units in eastern parts of Jerusalem, and the rest are for Efrat and Maale Adumim, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In the absence of peace talks, which collapsed about a year ago in a dispute over settlement building, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has been seeking statehood recognition from the United Nations.

The Palestinians are looking to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem - land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

ABC/Reuters

Tags: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, israel, palestinian-territory-occupied

First posted November 02, 2011 07:36:57