Israel closer to using force in Gaza
Published: Friday, June 06, 2008
14:01GMT—10:01AM/EST
ISRAEL – GAZA – MILITARY – OPERATION
Washington, 6 June (IranVNC)—Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last night that Israel may soon launch a military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip because Egyptian efforts to bring about a ceasefire “are not ripening,” AP reports.
Olmert, who was leaving Washington at the end of a three-day visit, told reporters: “As it looks now, it’s closer to a military operation than to another arrangement,” according to AP.
The Prime Minister said he agrees with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s assessment of the necessity for a wide-scale military operation in the Hamas-controlled territory, but he is not eager to launch such a strike.
“We aren’t gung-ho about a possible military operation, but we certainly are not afraid of one,” Olmert was quoted by Israel’s YNet news as saying yesterday.
Barak told municipal leaders of Israeli communities bordering Gaza yesterday that a strike would occur soon and that it would precede any ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian group.
Hamas militants carried out another mortar attack yesterday, killing one Israeli and wounding four others. The United Nations condemned the attack, as well as the retaliatory strike by the Israeli Air Force which killed one Palestinian.
A senior Hamas official later warned that without a ceasefire in effect, the group would continue its attacks, YNet reported.
Sources: Associated Press, YNet News
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