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News > World

Tensions Flare as Israeli Forces Attack Gaza

  • Palestinians inspect the scene of what witnesses said was an air strike on a workshop in Gaza City May 5, 2016

    Palestinians inspect the scene of what witnesses said was an air strike on a workshop in Gaza City May 5, 2016 | Photo: Reuters

Published 5 May 2016
Opinion

Israel claims it has found Palestinian tunnels into its territory, responding with aerial bombardments and military operations on the besieged coastal enclave.

Violence erupted along the Israel-Gaza border on Wednesday as Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged fire and Israeli war jets bombed targets in the coastal enclave. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The outbreak of violence coincided with work by the Israeli military to uncover tunnels being built by Gaza militants that Israel fears could be used to infiltrate its territory. Palestinian armed groups fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating near the border fence, and Israelis fired from tanks and warplanes that bombed open areas in the northern and southern sectors of the Gaza Strip.

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Gaza has been under Israeli siege since 2007, when Islamist Hamas took control of the strip.

The Hamas armed wing, Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said the raid was a violation of the 2014 ceasefire and demanded that Israel pull out its forces "immediately."

"The enemy must not make pretexts and must leave Gaza immediately, they should deal with their fears and concerns outside the separation line," the group said in a statement.

A senior Hamas official in exile, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said calm along the Gaza-Israel border was being restored following intervention with the two sides on the part of Egypt, which brokered the truce that stopped the 2014 war.

"Contacts were made with Egyptian brothers, who sponsored the last ceasefire agreement. Their response was quick, serious, which helped restore things to where they were before," Abu Marzouk in a post on his official Facebook page.

Israeli security sources say half a dozen classified anti-tunnel technologies have long been under development, though held up by funding problems that were partly alleviated by a U.S. research grant of $40 million this year.

Hamas leaders, while stressing they do not seek an imminent war, see tunnels as a strategic weapon in any armed confrontation with Israel and have vowed not to stop building them.

Tunnels, when not used to attack civilian targets, are a legitimate tactic in armed conflicts. As the occupied populace, Palestinians have the right to use armed resistance against military targets under international law.

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Currently, there is no evidence that Palestinian militants have used tunnels to attack Israeli civilians. In 2006, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinians who used tunnels to attack a military base close to the separation barrier. He was held until October 2011, after a deal was negotiated that saw many Palestinians prisoners released.

Shalit said that he was treated well during his captivity.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the last Gaza conflict in 2014. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were killed by rockets and attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

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