Israel-Hamas war, Day 8Hamas refuses Egypt's cease-fire proposal; Israel to resume – and escalate -- military operations

Israel-Hamas conflict escalates // Source: thoiviet.com.vn

Israel earlier today (12:00 midnight EST) had accepted the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, which was to go into effect at 02:00 EST. At that time, Israel halted all military operation.

Hamas, however, announced it would not accept the cease fire, and continued to fire rockets into Israel. The size of the salvos, the rockets used, and the range of the rockets confirmed that the launches were not the work of a few rogue, low-level elements, but were ordered by the higher military level in the organization, thus supporting the rejection of the Egyptian proposal by Hamas officials.

Sources in the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have just announced that Israel, after five hours of not responding to Hamas rocket attacks, was about to resume the fighting – and said that the next hours and days will see an intensified Israeli military efforts to destroy Hamas war-making ability.

A source in the prime minister’s office said that “After Hamas and the Islamic Jihad refused the Egyptian cease-fire offer and continued to fire rockets at Israel, the prime minister and the defense minister instructed the IDF to act with force against terror targets in Gaza.”

This means that Israel will send ground troops into Gaza, but not for the purpose of re-occupying Gaza but rather in an effort to discover and destroy the complex system of tunnels Hamas has been building near the border with Israel, tunnels which would be used for inserting Hamas fighters into Israel for attacks on towns and villages near the border.

Israel may also begin to target Hamas political leaders.