UN, EU, Pope make futile call for end fo violence in Gaza

Telegraph:

Members of the Israeli tank corps were ordered to report to barracks as the army built up ground forces along the Gaza Strip's perimeter.

It came as warplanes pounded the region for the second day and the death toll approached 300 with more than 700 injured.

The Israeli government refused to heed international calls for restraint and vowed to continue until Palestinian militants stopped firing rockets into Israel.

Aircraft attempted to isolate the Gaza Strip by bombing the area where dozens of smuggler tunnels have been dug under the border into Egypt.

But as the Palestinian death toll in Operation Cast Lead rose, there were no signs militants were stopping their rocket attacks on Israel.

One missile reached as far as the centre of the port city of Ashdod – increasing the number Israelis living in range of rocket strike by tens of thousands.

Calls from the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the Pope all went unheeded as Israel mobilised reservists for a possible ground incursion into Gaza.

An Israeli official said: "The cabinet has approved the drafting of thousands of reserve soldiers. These include combat units and home front units."

Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister, said before entering the weekly cabinet meeting that the operation "won't be short''.

"The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will expand and deepen its operations in Gaza as much as necessary,'' he said.

"We need to know that it won't be short and it won't be easy, and we must stand with determination.'' After the cabinet meeting Israeli ministers and spokesmen were careful to spell out the relatively modest aim of the military assault was not, as had been earlier hinted, the destruction of Hamas.

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While the destruction of the Hamas death cult is a worthy objective, the limited objectives of this operation apparently are to convince Hamas how painful it will be for them to continue firing rockets at noncombatants in Israel. At the same time the Israel military will degrade Hamas's ability to continue firing those rockets.

Hamas's futile call for a third intifada is a waste of time. Since Israel does not occupy Gaza where Hamas is in charge any disturbances will just be a further fouling of their own nest. While the Palestinians of Fatah in the West Bank may make some noise about solidarity, it is really not in their interest for Hamas to survive in any way but seriously weakened.