BICOM

Israel’s leaders reflected on the necessary steps to restore quiet to the country’s home front and considered the options as Operation Protective Edge escalated yesterday.

Yesterday evening, after a salvo of rockets targeted Israel’s major central population centres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “We are acting with determination and assertiveness to return the quiet, and we will continue to do so until the quiet is restored, so that our citizens and children can live in security.” He added, “We are not eager for battle… but the security of our citizens and children takes precedence over all else.” Netanyahu urged patience from the public “because this operation could take a long time.”

Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon expressed similar sentiments saying “We are prepared for a campaign against Hamas, which will not end within days.” Suggesting that Israel is prepared to widen its operations, Ya’alon added “We will not tolerate missile and rocket fire on Israel, and we are prepared to expand the campaign through all of the means available to us.”

Yesterday evening, the IDF called up around 40,000 reservists to replace conscripted forces in the West Bank, enabling their deployment at the Gaza border.

Also indicating that Israel could expand its military operation, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni commented, “If Hamas does not allow Israelis to live in peace, and then we too will be forced to carry out actions that we don’t fundamentally wish to perform, and that are not our primary goal.” She reiterated that “It is our duty to provide security to the citizens of Israel, and we need to see what the right way to do this is.”

The Israeli Cabinet initially announced a staged operation, hoping to bring about a return to the ceasefire that was established after Operation Pillar of Defence in November 2012, without the need for a ground operation. However, if the rocket fire continues, especially against central Israel, chances of a ground operation will increase.

Spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, in a televised broadcast last night, demanded a cessation of Israeli attacks, a return the November 2012 understandings, and the release of Hamas prisoners who were freed as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange, but recaptured by Israel after the abduction of three Israeli teens in the West Bank. For most of 2013 Hamas kept the ceasefire and enforced it on smaller factions. However, Hamas is currently considered in a weakened economic and political position, and its military leaders appear ready to risk a major escalation in the hope to improve its position vis-à-vis Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Labour head and opposition leader Isaac Herzog, speaking at a major peace conference in Tel Aviv, said “It’s time to restore deterrence. In the end, we cannot accept missile barrages.” He said that if he were prime minister, he would also be “meting out a harsh blow to Hamas” but at the same time traveling to Ramallah to speak with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Despite the rocket fire the Keren shalom crossing for Humanitarian aid into Gaza from Israel has remained open whilst the Rafah crossing into Egypt is closed.