Israel Air Defense Intercepts More Rockets as Fighting Continues

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JERUSALEM—Israeli aircraft carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants unleashed more rocket attacks against central Israel on Wednesday, as the battle between Hamas and Israel showed no signs of subsiding.

Israel's air force attacked at least 160 targets in Gaza overnight, hitting what it said were militants, rocket-launching sites, military equipment and smuggling tunnels.

Air raid sirens wailed across Tel Aviv and other communities in central and southern Israel on Wednesday morning and by late afternoon, Israel's air defense system had intercepted at least 15 rockets, the Israeli military said. Other rockets hit near Tel Aviv overnight, with most inflicting no damage.

Israel's bombardment has killed at least 39 people in Gaza since Monday, the Palestinian news agencyMa'an reported. Hafez Hamid, a top member of the Palestinian militant group Islamist Jihad, was among the dead, according to the Israeli military. There were no reports of Israeli casualties.

With the latest major confrontation between Israel and Hamas entering its third day, Israel stressed that it would expand its military operations.

Since the Islamist movement took full control of Gaza in 2007, Israel has mounted two other major military operations to stop rocket fire into its southern towns and to weaken, if not end, Islamist rule in the coastal strip.

The longest operation, stretching 22 days from December 2008 into the new year, ended in a cease-fire and the deaths of at least 1,166 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Since Palestinian militants fired the first crude, homemade rocket from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel in 2001, the militants' technology has increased in sophistication and range, putting increasing political and military pressure on the Israeli government to secure the border.

On Tuesday night, a missile hit the city of Hadera, 27 miles north of Tel Aviv, the Israeli military said, adding that the rocket was similar to a those found in a ship carrying Iranian-made weaponry that Israeli forces interdicted en route to Gaza in March.

Officials in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the goal of the latest Israeli military operation was to degrade Hamas' military infrastructure and restore the calm that has largely prevailed along the Gaza-Israel frontier since the last major military confrontation in November 2012.

Mr. Netanyahu has faced renewed calls to uproot Hamas, which Israeli authorities say was behind the kidnapping and killing last month of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank.

After the teenagers were kidnapped on June 12, Israeli security forces mounted a crackdown on Hamas members in the West Bank.

In reply, Islamic Jihad and some of the smaller Palestinian militant factions that operate in the Gaza Strip resumed rocket and mortar fire into southern Israel.

They escalated their attacks after a Palestinian teenager was abducted and burned to death last Wednesday in what Israeli police believe was retaliation for the killing of the three Israeli teens. Six Israelis have been arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack.

Source http://india.wsj.com/articles/israel-and-palestinian-militants-exchange-fire-as-confrontation-continues-1404908708?mobile=y

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