GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel pressed forward with a broad offensive against Islamic militants on Sunday, killing an Islamic Jihad commander in a pinpoint airstrike in the Gaza Strip and rounding up more than 200 wanted Palestinians. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised to use “all means” against the militants.
The offensive, coming just two weeks after Israel withdrew from Gaza, followed a wave of militant rocket attacks against Israeli towns over the weekend. Israel has promised to continue with its airstrikes, arrests and a possible ground invasion until the rocket fire ceases.
“There shall be no restrictions on the use of all means to hit the terrorists and the terror organizations, their equipment and their hideouts,” Sharon told his Cabinet on Sunday. “The order is unequivocal.”
Sunday’s airstrike killed Islamic Jihad’s top commander in southern Gaza, Mohammed Khalil, and his bodyguard as they drove along a coastal road in Gaza City.
Early today, the Israeli military carried out two airstrikes in Gaza. No casualties were reported in either attack.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian militant group Hamas announced Sunday it would no longer use the Gaza Strip as a staging ground for attacks against Israel.
In years past, it would have been unheard of for Hamas to announce so explicitly that it was suspending attacks, especially in the face of an Israeli military offensive against it. Even truce declarations by the group typically contain stridently defiant language and references to the continuation of the armed struggle.
But Hamas has been working hard to position itself as a political force in Gaza, and intends to contest parliamentary elections in January despite Israel’s angry objections to the group taking part in the vote.
Early Sunday, Israel arrested 207 wanted Palestinians in the West Bank, most of them members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops, backed by armored bulldozers, tanks and armored personnel carriers, massed outside Gaza. Israel set up five artillery pieces on the border, and fired test-rounds into empty fields in northern Gaza to calibrate their guns in preparation for a possible artillery assault. There were no injuries.
The Gaza pullout and the recent wave of fighting have weakened Sharon in his ruling Likud Party ahead of a crucial vote today. Sharon walked out of a stormy Likud meeting Sunday without delivering his prepared speech after what appeared to be an intentional electricity outage prevented him from speaking.
Many party members are angry at Sharon over the pullout, and it appeared that his opponents sabotaged the electric system.
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