As the Islamist movement Hamas unleashed salvos with long-range missiles on cities including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Israel mobilized forces along the border for a possible ground invasion, the Associated Press reported. In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said continued rocket attacks on Israeli communities would not be tolerated. “Therefore I have ordered the military to significantly broaden its operation against Hamas terrorists and against the other terrorist groups inside Gaza,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying. “I call on you to display patience because this operation could take time.” Earlier, the Israeli military said a ground invasion of the enclave was possible, though not imminent, and urged citizens within a range of 40 km (24 miles) of the coastal territory to stay close to bomb shelters, according to Reuters. Some 1,500 Israeli reservists had been mobilized and more could be called up, the Israeli military has said. “Operation Protective Edge: As Hamas continues to fire rockets, the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] will respond forcefully to protect Israeli citizens,” the Israeli army said on its Twitter account. “Hamas will not be safe as long as it continues to threaten the lives of Israeli civilians,” the army added. Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have engaged in numerous rounds of fighting over the years. But until recently, they had been observing a truce that ended the previous hostilities in 2012. Palestinian Minister of Public Works and Housing Mufeel al-Hasayneh said 50 houses were destroyed on Tuesday and 1,700 were partially damaged. Palestinian medics reported at least 28 dead, including six killed in an airstrike that flattened an apartment building in southern Gaza and set off widespread panic. They added that more than 150 were wounded in the deadliest day of violence in the coastal strip since 2012. Another airstrike flattened the home of one of Hamas’s leaders in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, reducing the concrete structure into a smoldering pile of rubble. The earlier death toll was four Palestinians killed when an airstrike targeted their car in Gaza city and at least seven others were killed when a house was bombed in Khan Younis, a southern area in the Gaza Strip. Emergency services earlier said that a man named Ashraf Yassin was also killed when Israeli fighter planes targeted an area west of Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The man is reportedly a member of Hamas’s armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

• published: 19 Nov 2014
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