Jerusalem – Israel threatened Sunday to invade Gaza if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not control militants who have stepped up rocket and mortar attacks ahead of Israel’s planned pullout from the coastal strip next month.
Abbas pledged to do his utmost to stop the barrages but warned that an invasion of Gaza would “sabotage everything.”
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said all restraints are off and thousands of Israeli troops have massed along the Gaza border. The sudden escalation is the most serious threat yet to a 5-month-old truce that had drastically reduced Palestinian- Israeli violence after more than four years of bloodshed.
More than 100 rockets and mortars have rained down on Gaza settlements and Israeli villages just outside the territory in the past four days. Hamas leaders say they are retaliating for Israeli violations of the truce.
But one leader said the main reason for the barrage was to show that Israeli settlers were fleeing Gaza under fire rather than in a planned evacuation.
In violence Sunday, Israeli soldiers killed a Hamas leader and Palestinian infiltrator, and the air force fired on a car in northern Gaza, wounding a bystander. The military said it targeted militants on their way to firing rockets but missed.
Also, two Israelis were wounded seriously in a Palestinian mortar strike on a Gaza settlement.
Soldiers and tanks were poised to cross the Gaza border fence.
Large-scale raids often have followed rocket and mortar barrages but not since the truce took effect Feb. 8.
Sharon told his ministers at the start of a weekly Cabinet meeting: “I spoke to the heads of the defense establishment … and informed them that there are to be no restraints on our operations.”
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the meeting Israel would launch a “massive, prolonged and intricate” military strike if the Palestinian Authority does not stop the attacks.
Despite the tough talk, there were signs both sides want to maintain the truce. Abbas publicly called on militant groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad to stop their attacks. Israeli officials said they are reluctant to launch a full-scale military strike for fear of being bogged down in Gaza before the evacuation.
Egyptian mediators were meeting Sunday with Hamas in an attempt to reconstitute the truce, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was planning a quick trip to the region to try to salvage the cease-fire.
After meeting the Egyptians, Hamas official Said Siyam said differences among Palestinians can be resolved peacefully.
“The internal conflict has passed, and all issues within the Palestinian internal society can be solved through dialogue,” he said, repeating the Hamas position that it is committed to the truce but has the right to retaliate for Israeli violations.
