GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —The Israeli military widened its range of
targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday to include the media
operations of the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers, sending its
aircraft to attack two buildings used by both Hamas and foreign
media outlets.
The fresh wave of strikes come a day after Israel hammered the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to take out rocket launchers that have
enough range to strike cities that have never seen missiles from
the Palestinian territory.

MORE: Israel attacks Hamas media operations in Gaza
So far, the exchange of rocket attacks and airstrikes have killed 49
Palestinians and wounded more than 400. Three Israelis have
been killed and more than 50 wounded.
The rocket attacks from Gaza largely ceased late Saturday in the
face of the Israeli air assault. Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon
told Army Radio on Sunday that Israel has to be prepared to widen
the operation if militants don't back down.
source: http.m.usatoday.com/article/news/1710903?articlePage=0

Hamas wants end to blockade in cease-fire

(CNN) - Hamas wants an end to Israel's long blockade of Gaza
and raids on the territory in any cease-fire that might put a stop
to five days of weaponry plummeting from the sky, a top
Palestinian official said Sunday.
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has ruled Gaza since
2007, said an Israeli airstrike killed a family of 10 on Sunday.
Israel, meanwhile, said Hamas had fired nearly 150 rockets into
Israel in a single day, and that the strike was aimed at killing one
of the leaders of the militant group's rocket corps -- but Israel
was unsure whether he was among the dead.
It was the latest violence in what has become a daily nightmare
for millions in the region, one that puts Gaza's 1.7 million
residents and millions of Israelis in harm's way. But an Israeli
special envoy was in Egypt for cease-fire talks late Sunday, the
Egyptian government said, and a stream of Arab League, U.N.
and European diplomats were darting in and out of the region
on similar errands.
Nabil Sha'ath, a senior Palestinian negotiator, said Hamas is
demanding an end to "the harassment and draconian siege of
Gaza that prevents anything from coming in or going out, so that
there will be a normal life for the people of Gaza." The territory
has been under a crippling economic embargo since Hamas
won control of the territory from the Fatah-led Palestinian
Authority, which controls the West Bank.


U.S. fears escalation to ground invasion

But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said
Sunday that he is in "continuing contact" with exiled Hamas
leader Khaled Meshaal and called for Palestinian unity during
the Israeli offensive. Sha'ath, also a Fatah leader, said Hamas
wants Israel to stop targeting the leadership of Palestinian
factions and to expand the waters Palestinian fishermen are
allowed to trawl from three miles offshore to 30.
Sha'ath said the Palestinian goal was to reach not only an end to
the latest fighting but a long-term cease-fire between Hamas and
Israel.
"The attempt is to reach a real stable situation. That's why they
are asking for commitment on Israeli typical aggression and
periodic incursions and constant shooting and firing at the
fishermen in the sea," he said.
But rockets continued to fall on Israel on Sunday, and airstrikes
continued in Gaza. Fresh sirens sounded Sunday in Tel Aviv, but
the Israel Defense Forces reported that it had intercepted at least
two rockets headed for the city with its "Iron Dome" missile-
defense system. A rocket struck a car in the Israeli town of
Ofakim, while another hit a woman's carport while she was
inside her house in Ashkelon.


Iron Dome is a game-changer, Israelis say

And in Gaza, Hamas-run al Aqsa television showed images of
children's bodies being carried away from a house blown apart
by an Israeli airstrike. They were among a family of 10 who died
there, according to a Palestinian ambulance service.
On Twitter, the al Qassam Brigades -- Hamas' military wing --
called it a "massacre committed by Israeli occupation."
But Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, the IDF's chief spokeswoman, told
CNN that Yehya Bayaa -- a "senior Hamas member" -- was
targeted in the strike. The IDF identified Bayaa as one of the
leaders of the Hamas rocket-launching unit.
"When I say a senior Hamas member, I mean members that have Israeli blood on their hands -- members of Hamas that planned either the abduction of soldiers or are very much involved in targeting Israelis," she told CNN.


Q & A: What is Hamas?

Leibovitch said the house was Bayaa's home and suspected
command center and that the Israeli military was examining
video of the strike to look for signs of secondary explosions --
an indication that there were explosives inside. But late Sunday,
she said she did not know for sure whether Bayaa had been
killed.
Israel also said Sunday that it was not to blame for the death of a Palestinian child last week -- a 4-year-old boy whose lifeless
body was kissed by Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil
during his visit to a Gaza hospital Friday.
CNN visited the child's home, which neighbors said had been
bombed five hours previously. Neighbors and family members
told CNN they heard an aircraft before the explosion.
But the Israeli military told CNN on Sunday it did not carry out
any airstrikes at the time of the child's death. The IDF said had
stopped its attacks for Kandil's visit, raising questions about
what caused the fatal blast. One possibility could be the misfire
of a Hamas rocket intended for Israel, since CNN's crew in Gaza
said it saw two such rockets passing overhead -- apparently fired
not far from where the boy lived.


GPS: What does this all mean?

Israel launched its offensive on Wednesday in response to
persistent rocket attacks from militants in Gaza. Early Monday,
the Gaza health ministry said 76 people have been killed in Gaza
during the ongoing hostilities. It was not clear how many of the
dead were combatants. Earlier, the territory's interior ministry
said 20 children and eight women were among the dead.
More than 660 people were injured, the interior ministry said.
The IDF said one Israeli was wounded Sunday. Three Israelis had
been killed and 69 wounded over the course of the conflict.
Militants in Gaza had fired nearly 1,000 rockets at Israel, the IDF
reported. More than 340 had been intercepted, including 41 of
the 146 fired Sunday, the military said. Meanwhile, the IDF
conducted 130 strikes during the day, it reported.
The IDF, which has been touting the "pinpoint" precision of its
airstrikes via Twitter, said it had hit a slew of what it called
"terrorist" sites while sparing other damage.
"Terrorists put an underground launch site next to a mosque.
We targeted the site. The mosque was unharmed," the IDF said
in one post, which was accompanied by military video of the
raid.
The Israeli military has also said that nearly 100 rockets fired
from Gaza in recent days have crashed back into the strip.
"Hamas fires from civilian areas and hits its own people," it said
on Twitter.
The Israeli government has called up 75,000 reservists and
massed 30,000 troops across the border of the Palestinian
territory, the IDF said. In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel is prepared to
significantly escalate its operation against Palestinian militants
in Gaza.
"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the (other)
terrorist organizations, and IDF is prepared for a significant
expansion of its operations," Netanyahu said before his weekly
Cabinet meeting.
The fighting has put new strains on Israel's relationship with
Egypt, which is attempting to broker a cease-fire. The Muslim
Brotherhood-led government that took power in June has
pledged to maintain Egypt's peace treaty with Israel -- the
cornerstone of what peace has been achieved in the turbulent
region -- but sympathy for the Palestinians runs deep among
Egyptians.
On Egypt's border with Gaza, about 500 Egyptian protesters
crossed into the territory on Sunday in what their leader said
was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians. They raised
Palestinian flags and chanted, "We are the youth of January 25
revolution, Palestine will be free! Open the crossing, Israel is the
enemy!"
"We have broken the siege," said Rami Shaath, the group's main
organizer. "The Arab Spring has changed the region. We are
happy to go in to support our Palestinian brothers, but it's sad
to hear the explosions of the Israeli bombing of Gaza all the way
on the Egyptian side. We brought in small amounts medical
supplies, food, and water, but our main message is political
support to the Gazans."
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby and 16 foreign
ministers from the league's member states will drive into Gaza
on Tuesday for talks, a spokesman for the organization said.
Meanwhile, Abbas will hold talks in the West Bank with Tony
Blair, the envoy for the Mideast Quartet, and with U.N. Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon during their visits to the region in the
coming days, said Saeb Erakat, a member of the PLO's executive
committee and an Abbas ally.
The United States and several European countries have put the
brunt of the blame for the current crisis on Hamas, an Islamic
fundamentalist movement that has been branded a terrorist
organization by the United States, Israel and the European
Union. Those Western powers say Israel has a right to self-
defense, while Arab and Muslim nations have accused Israel of
being the aggressor.
Rocket attacks into Israel were the "precipitating event" for the
fighting under way now, U.S. President Barack Obama said
during a stop in Thailand on Sunday. "We are actively working
with all the parties in the region to see if we can end those
missiles being fired without further escalation of violence in the
region."
Obama said he has spoken with Netanyahu, Egyptian President
Mohamed Morsy, and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
He emphasized that "those who champion the cause of the
Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation
of the situation in Gaza, then the likelihood" of peace talks
resuming that could lead to a two-state solution "is going to be
pushed off way into the future," Obama said.

source: edition.cnn.com/2012/11/18/world/meast/gaza-israel-strike/index.html?c=intl-homepage-t&page=0#

Israel Ready to Invade Gaza If Cease-Fire Efforts Fail

Israeli ground forces are poised to invade the Gaza Strip for
the first time in almost four years amid efforts by Egypt and
Turkey to help end the rocket battles that have killed 71
Palestinians and three Israelis.
“We will continue to act, to attack and perhaps even to
intensify the operation,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said
during an appearance near Tel Aviv yesterday, according to
an e- mailed statement. “If there is a need, we won’t hesitate
to undertake ground maneuvers.”
The escalating conflict between Israel and the Islamist Hamas
movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, threatens a region
still unbalanced after a wave of popular uprisings last year.
Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the U.S. and
the European Union.
Amid cease-fire efforts, air-raid sirens sounded twice in Tel
Aviv yesterday as four rockets were intercepted by Israel’s
Iron Dome missile-defense system. A rocket was fired at
Jerusalem on Nov. 16, the first such attack in decades. At
least 1,100 missiles, rockets and mortars have been fired at
Israel since Nov. 14, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
About 14,000 have been fired from Gaza in the past 11 years.
The Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians in Gaza yesterday,
including 11 members of an extended family by the name of
Al-Dalou, said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Hamas-
run Gaza Health Ministry. At least half of the Palestinians
killed since the air strikes started last week were civilians,
including women and children, he said.


‘Immediate Cease-Fire’
An Israeli official arrived at the Cairo airport yesterday, an
Egyptian security official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to comment to the
media. The arrival came as Egypt’s President Mohamed
Mursi and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
have pushed to secure a cease-fire between Hamas and
Israel.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Roushdi,
contacted by text message, said he had no information
“whatsoever” on the arrival. Israeli government spokesman
Mark Regev declined to comment on the report.
“I strongly urge the parties to cooperate with all efforts led by
Egypt to reach an immediate cease-fire,” United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement released
yesterday in New York. “I am heading to the region to appeal
personally for ending the violence and contribute to ongoing
efforts to that end.”


Military Goal
Israel says its military goal is to make Palestinians in Gaza
stop firing the rockets that have killed three Israeli civilians.
“Let’s understand what the precipitating event was that was
causing the crisis, and that was an ever-escalating number of
missiles,” U.S. President Barack Obama said at a press
conference in Bangkok, where he began a three-nation trip.
“We will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”
U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent
who caucuses with Democrats, speaking yesterday on “Fox
News Sunday,” called Hamas “bad actors” and said “no
nation would put up with what Israel has up until now.” On
the same show, Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of
Georgia said “if sending ground troops in is the only way
they can clean out these nests of rockets being fired at them,
you know, you can’t blame them for doing it.”
Hamas said the Israeli actions won’t stop it from operating.
“The government and the Palestinian people are united to
confront the aggression,” it said in an e-mailed statement. “It
is the right of Palestinian people and the government to
resist the occupation.”


Iron Dome
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system, which targets
projectiles heading toward populated areas, has intercepted
287 of those fired from Gaza, according to the Israeli army.
Israeli fighter jets hit about 150 targets in Gaza yesterday,
bringing the number of air strikes over the past four days to
1,100, an army spokesman said, speaking on condition of
anonymity in compliance with military rules.
In addition, Israeli officials said hackers have sought to bring
down government websites. Israeli websites have been hit by
44 million cyber attacks since the Gaza operation started
Nov. 14, all but one of which were stopped, Finance Minister
Yuval Steinitz told reporters in Jerusalem.
Israeli stocks and bonds rose for the first time in three days
on bets international mediation will lead to a cease-fire. The
TA-25 index advanced 1.4 percent to 1,198.38 in Tel Aviv.
The yield on the 5.5 percent Mimshal Shiklit bonds due
January 2022 dropped six basis points to 3.95 percent.


Tank Deployment
Egyptian stocks fell the most in more than four months as
the government struggled to contain public anger over
Israel’s attacks in Gaza. The EGX 30 retreated 3.3 percent, the
most since July 9, to 5,478.38 at the close in Cairo.
World leaders including Obama have called for an end to the
conflict before it escalates. Israel deployed tanks near the
border, threatening the first ground invasion of Gaza since
an assault that began in December 2008 and left more than
1,100 Palestinians and 12 Israelis dead.
Egypt is trying with Turkey, Arab nations and the world’s
leading powers, such as the U.S., France and Britain, to get a
cease-fire agreement from both sides, Mursi said yesterday.
In phone conversations with Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham
Qandil and her counterparts in France, Qatar and Turkey,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “underscored Israel’s right
to self-defense” and “the urgent need for all leaders with
influence to use it to seek an immediate de-escalation of
tensions,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland
said.


Ground Invasion
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff called Ban to urge the UN
to “fully assume” its responsibilities and mediate an end to
the conflict, according to a statement from her office.
Israel risks losing “a lot of international support and
sympathy” if it mounts a ground invasion to stop the rocket
attacks, U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague told Sky News
television.
The standoff in Gaza is putting pressure on Arab leaders
such as Mursi, who came to power after an uprising that
ousted U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak last year and has pledged
stronger support for Palestinians. Tens of thousands have
rallied in Cairo to protest the Israeli attacks, and there were
similar demonstrations in Turkey, Iran and other Islamic
countries.


UN Bid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose
Fatah group rules in the West Bank, has said he’ll seek to
upgrade Palestinian diplomatic status at the United Nations
later this month to “non-member observer state” in the 193-
member General Assembly. Abbas failed last year to secure
approval in the 15- member Security Council for statehood
recognition after opposition from the U.S.
Israeli leaders say the Palestinian bid is a unilateral step to
obtain statehood without negotiating and will be used to try
to isolate Israel diplomatically.
“If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, then
the likelihood of us getting onto any two-state solution is
pushed further in the future,” Obama said. “It starts with no
more missiles fired into Israel’s territory.”
Senator John McCain of Arizona suggested using an envoy
such as former President Bill Clinton to start negotiations.
“We need a person of enormous prestige and influence to
have these parties sit down together,” McCain said on CBS’s
“Face the Nation.”


End Normalization
The Arab League urged its member nations to end
normalization of relations with Israel because of the Israeli
air offensive in Gaza, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-
Arabi said in a statement after the group’s meeting in Cairo.
The league has endorsed the so-called Arab Peace Initiative,
which was originally proposed in 2002. It offers to normalize
relations between Israel and all Arab states in exchange for a
complete Israeli withdrawal from territories Israel captured
in the 1967 Middle East War, including the West Bank, east
Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Egypt and
Jordan are the only Arab League members that have full
diplomatic relations with Israel.
Hamas may want to prolong the conflict for a while “to keep
earning more popular support among the Arab peoples and
Arab leaders,” said As’ad Abu Sharkh, a political science
professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza City.
The group probably isn’t interested in a “fragile” cease- fire
that could be violated, Abu Sharkh said. Instead, it seeks “a
long-term truce with guarantees that Israel won’t violate it
again,” so that Palestinians can rebuild Gaza, he said.
source: mobile.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-18/israel-ready-to-invade-gaza-if-cease-fire-efforts-fail

Meanwhile, thousands of Israeli troops waited on the border in
case an order came to invade. Israeli's government has authorized
mobilizing up to 75,000 reservists and positioned tanks and
armored vehicles on the border. At least 16,000 reservists had
been called to duty and more were awaiting orders should the
Palestinian rockets resume.
In Cairo, leaders of Hamas, Qatar and Turkey were in talks with
Egyptian officials to see whether Hamas would agree to a stop in
its rocket attacks that sparked the Israeli assault, Egypt news
website Ahram Online reported.
"There are discussions about the ways to bring a cease-fire soon,
but there are no guarantees," said Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who hosted the meeting. Speaking at a news conference, Morsi said he was working with Turkey, Arab countries, the U.S., Russia and western European countries to halt the fighting.
According to the website of Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth,
Hamas demanded a lifting of the Gaza blockade and guarantees of an end of targeted killings in Gaza in exchange for halting its
rocket fire, the Islamic Jihad-affiliated Palestine al-Youm website
reported Saturday.
Israel began its air assault Wednesday after firing a missile into
the car of a Hamas military commander, killing him. The blockade refers to Israel and Egypt's policing of the Gaza border.

by Naser Najjar, Special for USA TODAY
Published: 11/18/2012 02:32am

Israel launches fresh, major air-sea attack in Gaza after
Hamas spurns ceasefire

Israeli air and naval forces launched heavy assaults in Gaza before dawn Sunday, Nov. 18 – Day 5 of the IDF’s Gaza operation - after daylong bargaining Saturday among Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and Gaza, failed to produce an Israel-Hamas truce accord. When Egyptian and Turkish middlemen suggested a ceasefire was close, Israel accused them of pushing Hamas’s terms which were fashioned to present the Palestinian radicals as the victor in the contest. The trio leading the Israeli war, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, countered by intensifying the IDF’s Gaza offensive – though not as yet sending ground troops in.
A Western source said it would take some days to determine if a
ceasefire was feasible.
Egyptian intelligence meanwhile smuggled Hamas Prime Minister Islmail Haniyeh out of Gaza and over to El Arish in northern Sinai in the convoy of visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafiq Abdessalem when he departed Gaza Saturday, debkafile reports.

source: http//: www.debka.com/article/22539/Israel-launches-fresh-major-air-sea-attack-in-Gaza-after-Hamas-spurns-ceasefire-