Israel Pounds Gaza as Cabinet Okays Escalation

Military Calls Up Reservists, Masses Troops on Border

Israeli warplanes pound the Gaza Strip in an offensive they are calling “Operation Protective Edge” this evening, hitting a large number of targets in the center of the strip, as the situations moves closer to open warfare.

Israel’s security cabinet met this evening, agreeing to a further escalation of the conflict, which has seen both sides trading airstrikes in previous days. Israel also declared a “State of Emergency” is southern towns, though so far the Gaza rockets, as usual, have done minimal damage and caused only one confirmed injury.

Israel has confirmed a large number of strikes in Gaza, though it has denied reports of six Hamas fighters killed in one of the strikes, saying they died in a tunnel in an unrelated explosion.

Though Israel has not yet announced a ground invasion of the strip, they have called up another 1,500 reservists, and their military is massing ground troops along the Gaza border.

The tensions are on the rise across Israel itself, as well, with growing anger over the killing of a Palestinian teen last week, and the brutal police beating of his teenage cousin over the weekend already sparking massive protests among Israeli Arabs, protests likely to grow if the Gaza fighting continues to escalate.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.