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Twenty-Three Dead as Violence Escalates in Gaza Strip
17 Apr 08
Three Israeli soldiers, 19 Palestinians, (including civilians) and a Reuters cameraman were killed in heavy clashes in the Gaza Strip yesterday, in one of the bloodiest days in several weeks.
Global Insight Perspective | | Significance | The ferocity of yesterday’s clashes was underlined by the high number of casualties, including civilians, who have now become the latest victims in an escalating pattern of violence between the two sides. | Implications | The Islamist movement, Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, responded to the attacks by vowing to avenge the Palestinian deaths saying that “all options are now open”. In response to the violence the Israeli government has said that the Islamist movement bears sole responsibility for the fighting in Gaza and will pay a “heavy price”. | Outlook | Further retaliatory attacks are anticipated on both sides in the coming days. Israel has already gone on high alert ahead of the Jewish Passover holiday, tightening restrictions on the West Bank and deploying extra police and security forces. |
Renewed Clashes: Heavy fighting between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip have claimed the lives of 23 people, according to AFP, underscoring the fragility of the security situation in the isolated, Islamist-run territory. The clashes first erupted following an Israeli army operation in the northern Gaza Strip aimed at keeping militants away from the border fence, according to Israeli military sources. Clashes and Israeli airstrikes continued into the afternoon with fighting spreading across different areas of the coastal territory. The deadliest clashes occurred near the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, where 14 Palestinian civilians, including five under the age of 16 were killed; a further 17 people were injured during the operation, according to Palestinian medical sources. A 23-year old cameraman from the international news agency Reuters, was killed when a missile struck his clearly marked press vehicle in the same area; the Israeli army expressed regret over the cameraman’s death but warned that Gaza remained a dangerous place for the media. The Israeli army also claimed that it had hit armed militants and that it was still checking reports of civilian casualties at the camp. Five more Palestinians, all of them militants, were killed in clashes earlier in the day. The Israeli army confirmed that three of its soldiers had been killed and that three more were wounded in gun battles near the security fence on the Israeli-Gaza border. Separately, early this morning, Israel launched a new operation into the West Bank city of Jenin, killing two militants from the radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad which has also been involved in the fighting in Gaza. Bracing for Further Attacks: Palestinian and Israeli leaders responded to the escalations by vowing further attacks. Hamas, which has retained control over the Gaza Strip since it ousted security forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, promised to avenge the Palestinian killings saying that “all options are now open”. The Israeli government on the other hand has said that the Islamist movement bears sole responsibility for the fighting in Gaza and will pay a “heavy price”. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who was on a state visit to Russia, strongly condemned the attack and called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides, according to AFP. The Palestinian president is hoping to revive momentum for a new Middle East conference in Moscow to boost current peace talks with Israel. Since the attack on the fuel depot on Monday, the number of Palestinian rocket attacks have increased substantially, the majority of which have been carried out by Islamic Jihad or other smaller Palestinian groups like the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and not Hamas, who have generally refrained from claiming responsibility for such attacks. Yesterday’s surge in violence comes amid the release of a new report by the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center which suggests that Hamas, thanks to support from Iran and Syria, has continued to build up its military arsenal and is readying itself for a major attack. This seems unlikely given the current restrictions on the Gaza Strip and the movement’s continued unwillingness to see its entrenched position in Gaza compromised. High Alert: Gaza-Israel frontiers have been put on high alert ever since the border breach by Palestinian militants and the killing of two Israeli civilian at the Nahal Oz fuel-depot crossing on 9 April (See: Israel-Palestinian Authority: 10 April 2008: Two Civilians killed in Militant Attack on Israeli Border Depot) during which crucial fuel imports to the territory were temporarily halted only to be restored several days later. Gaza’s current fuel crisis has been severely complicated by last week’s attack; Israeli officials have accused Hamas of causing an “energy crisis” for propaganda purposes in order extract international sympathy. Following yesterday’s violence, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon expressed grave concern over the mounting violence in Gaza and urged both sides to “show restraint”. He also condemned the deaths of Palestinian civilians during the operations. He urged Israel to abide by its obligations under international humanitarian and human-rights law and reiterated his condemnation of rocket fire against Israeli civilian targets. Outlook and Implications: The resurgence of violence in the Gaza Strip underscores the continued volatility of the situation in the territory; threats from both the Hamas leadership and Israel mean that the two sides are likely to be bracing themselves for further attacks. Hamas’s defiant response is likely to further compound the plight of the 1.6 million Gazans who are at the centre of the violence; more than 100 Gazans—many of them civilians—have been killed in recent weeks amid a relentless wave of rocket attacks and retaliation by the Israeli military. However, Israel has continued to rule out the possibility of large-scale incursions which would likely to prove both costly and ineffective. Yesterday’s violence will also further complicate U.S.-led international efforts to forge a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The latest peace initiative, which was unveiled at the Annapolis (Maryland) talks in November 2007, was already reeling under the weight of Israel’s latest military offensive in Gaza; at the time Mahmoud Abbas had little choice but to sever talks with Israel following the recent spate of killings. Israel meanwhile is expected to go on high alert today ahead of this weekend’s Jewish Passover holiday, tightening restrictions on the Palestinian West Bank and deploying police and security reinforcements throughout the country.
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