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Israel’s Security Cabinet Endorses Gaza Strip Strikes, Tanks Roll into Gaza
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A
house in Rafah destroyed by the Israeli occupation army
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OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, May 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Just hours
after Israel's security cabinet endorsed military strikes on the Gaza
Strip, a dozen Israeli occupation tanks and two bulldozers rolled into
the southern Gaza
Strip town of Rafah Thursday morning, May 9.
The
Israeli occupation forces rolled 150-200 meters into the flashpoint
town on the Egyptian border.
One
house was burned and another damaged by tank shells, while bulldozers
flattened the ground, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Hours
earlier, Israeli Transport Minister Ephraim Sneh told public radio
after the security cabinet’s late night meeting, "There are no
divergences in our view on the necessity of our troops intervening
against the terrorist infrastructures in the Gaza Strip, taking into
account the lessons from Operation Defensive Wall."
Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a hard-line former general, cut short a
U.S. visit following a Palestinian resistance attack Tuesday in a pool
hall in Rishon Letsion, just outside Tel Aviv, which killed 16. He met
for around three hours with his security cabinet late Wednesday and
was granted carte blanche for a reprisal.
"The
security cabinet authorized the prime minister and the defense
minister (Binyamin Ben Eliezer) to take the action they deem
necessary," a government statement said.
Israeli daily newspaper, Ha’aretz, said that the
Israeli army began massing forces on the border with the Gaza Strip
late Wednesday night. The
army was also reportedly preparing to issue additional emergency
call-up orders to reservists.
Effie
Eytam, minister without portfolio from the extreme-right National
Union, told Israeli radio a Gaza operation would be complex "and
have to combine air attacks with timely and well-targeted ground
operations."
Officials
said the cabinet decision was taken unanimously after about three
hours of debate. Sharon had met earlier with senior military officials
to go over Israel's options.
Security
sources said Sharon's generals had presented him with a plan for a
major, one-shot operation aimed at the Gaza, where the Hamas
leadership is located.
One
of the other options facing the cabinet was the possible expulsion of
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. Israeli state radio said Finance
Minister Sylvan Shalom proposed the idea but it was not put to a vote.
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