Gaza militants fired rockets at both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv yesterday, aiming for the Jewish state’s political and commercial hearts, and prompting Israel to call up thousands more reservists in readiness for a potential ground war.
The Israeli army said it had sealed off all the main roads around the Gaza border, declaring the area a closed military zone, in the latest sign that Israel’s patience with rocket fire was at an end and it was poised to launch its first ground offensive on the territory since 2008-9.
An AFP correspondent reported seeing tanks massed along the frontier, and a steady stream of reservists arriving throughout the day.
The army sought 11th-hour Cabinet approval to call up as many as 75,000 reservists, ringing around ministers at home on the Jewish day of rest which began at sundown, Cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser revealed on his official Facebook page.
The military wing of the Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza said it fired the rocket at Jerusalem, the first to strike the outskirts of the Holy City in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It marked a major escalation by the territory’s Hamas rulers in the face of a deadly pounding since Wednesday by Israeli aircraft that has killed 28 Gazans and sparked outrage across the Arab and Islamic world.
Neither rocket caused casualties or damage, police said, but they sowed panic in both of the Jewish state’s main population centres, setting off warning sirens and sending people scurrying to shelters. One hit a Jewish settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank just south of Jerusalem which is home to many commuters.
“A rocket fired from Gaza hit an open area outside of Jerusalem, causing no injuries or damage,” an army spokesman said.
Police said it hit in the Gush Etzion bloc of settlements that stretches south of Jerusalem past Bethlehem from just five kilometres beyond the city limits. A second rocket crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv “some 200 metres” from the beachfront US embassy, sending beachgoers leeing, an eyewitness said.
The two rockets were the farthest Gaza militants have ever fired into Israel, exceeding even the 60 kilometres achieved by a rocket that hit the sea off Jaffa, just south of Tel Aviv, on Thursday. Even before the latest rocket fire, senior Cabinet minister Moshe Yaalon warned that Israel was poised for a ground offensive.
“We are preparing all the military options, including the possibility that forces will be ready to enter Gaza in the event that the firing doesn’t stop,” he said.
As ground troops massed, there was no let-up in the Israeli air offensive. A child was among the six latest victims reported by the territory’s emergency services, two of whom were brought in to Gaza City’s Shifa hospital as Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil toured the wards on an unprecedented solidarity visit to the territory.
Israel denied its aircraft had killed the pair, but Qandil leant forward and kissed the dead body of four-year-old Mohammed Yasser, voicing outrage at his loss.
“This tragedy cannot be tolerated, and the whole world bears the responsibility to stop the aggression,” he said.
“Egypt will not hesitate to intensify its efforts and make sacrifices to stop this aggression and achieve a lasting truce,” Qandil added.
Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi hammered home the message of support soon after his Prime Minister ended the lightning visit. “Egypt will not leave Gaza on its own... What is happening is a blatant aggression against humanity,” Morsi said.