THE ISRAELI-GAZA border remained tense last night following a weekend of violence in which at least 10 Palestinian militants and an Israeli civilian were killed.
Yesterday afternoon a militant belonging to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine was killed and another wounded in an Israeli drone attack, which prompted renewed rocket fire into southern Israel. The Israeli military said the men were preparing to launch a rocket into Israel, breaking an eight-hour truce, brokered with the help of Egypt, following the most serious surge in violence in months.
Hamas rulers in Gaza had succeeded in maintaining quiet as negotiations for a prisoner swap with Israel reached their end game in recent weeks. The exchange of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners took place two weeks ago. Last Wednesday Islamic Jihad militants ended the period of calm by firing a rocket into Israel to mark the 16th anniversary of the Israeli assassination of its leader.
Nine Islamic Jihad militants were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Saturday. Schools in southern Israel remained closed and a million residents in a 40-kilometre (25-mile) range of Gaza were ordered to remain close to bomb shelters as some 40 projectiles landed inside Israel.
Dawud Shehab, a senior member of Islamic Jihad, responded to Egyptian efforts to bring about a truce by saying “when all jet fighters leave the skies of Gaza we will stop firing rockets”. Some Palestinians accused Israel of provoking tension in order to scuttle the second phase of the Shalit prisoner swap in which Israel is due to release another 550 Palestinian inmates by mid-December.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel did not seek escalation but would continue to target militants who were identified as preparing to fire rockets. He said Israel held Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza even though smaller Palestinian factions claimed responsibility. “There is no ceasefire and the other side will pay a heavier price than it has so far, until it ceases fire.”
Israeli president Shimon Peres urged Israel’s Arab neighbours to work to stop the violence. “Neither we nor you want war, but [the] rockets from Gaza are a borderline declaration of war. Reckless groups cannot be allowed to endanger our peace.”
A number of Israeli ministers called for the army to target Hamas leaders or reoccupy parts of Gaza if the rocket fire continued.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton expressed her concern over the escalation, criticising the rocket attacks on Israel as well as the Israeli defence forces response, and demanding both sides respect the ceasefire.
In a separate development the Tel Aviv district court yesterday sentenced Anat Kam to a 4½-year prison term for transferring some 2,000 secret army documents to an Israeli journalist. The judges determined that Ms Kam’s actions were ideologically motivated and warned: “If the IDF cannot fully trust its soldiers, it will not be able to function as an army.” Under an earlier plea bargain the most serious charges of “harming state security” were dropped.
Ms Kam (24) copied the documents, including 700 classified as top secret, during her military service at the army’s central command headquarters between 2005-2007 and transferred them to Uri Blau, an investigative reporter for Israeli daily Haaretz.
In 2008, Haaretz published an article based on data in some of the documents, with the approval of Israel’s military censor, which implied that the army operated a shoot-to-kill policy when tracking down senior Palestinian militants.