MIDEAST: Israeli ground troops gather along the border with Gaza while airforce strikes hit the Hamas-run territory

Record ID: 359481

  • Title: MIDEAST: Israeli ground troops gather along the border with Gaza while airforce strikes hit the Hamas-run territory
  • Date: 17th November 2012
  • Summary: ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER AREA, GAZA (AS SEEN FROM ISRAEL) (NOVEMBER 17, 2012) (REUTERS) EXPLOSION IN GAZA AS SEEN FROM ISRAEL, SMOKE BILLOWING SHAAR HANEGEV, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 17, 2012) (REUTERS) ISRAELI SOLDIERS WITH GEAR NEAR BUS SOLDIERS STANDING IN CIRCLE FOR BRIEFING VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS BEING BRIEFED COMMANDER BRIEFING SOLDIERS VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS PICKING UP EQUIPMENT, LOA
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Gaza, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAESX1EC9V9MSO60YHI1UDQXH3G
  • Story Text: Israeli soldiers deployed along Gaza's border on Saturday (November 17) after Israel's cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing the ground for a possible Gaza invasion after Palestinians fired a rocket toward Jerusalem for the first time in decades.
    Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000.
    The move did not necessarily mean all would be called into service.
    As dawn broke on Saturday, many were being briefed by commanders and preparing vehicles for a possible offensive.
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session with a clutch of senior ministers in Tel Aviv on widening the military campaign, while other cabinet members were polled by telephone on raising the mobilisation level.
    The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein's Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
    Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial centre, also came under rocket attack for the second straight day, in defiance of an Israeli air offensive that began on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border attacks that have plagued southern Israel for years.
    Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, claimed responsibility for firing at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israel said the rocket launched toward Jerusalem landed in the occupied West Bank, and the one fired at Tel Aviv did not hit the city. There were no reports of casualties.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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