Israel should take this opportunity to permanently retake Gaza and the West Bank territories. Palestinians and any other groups that don’t like it should be told to go elsewhere.
Israel says Gaza ground operation aims to restore calm, not oust Hamas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3181746/posts
Thousands of Israeli soldiers backed by tanks poured into the Gaza Strip on Thursday night, escalating a 10-day military operation to try to destroy Hamas’s weapons arsenal, rocket firing abilities and tunnels used to send terrorists from the Palestinian territory into Israel.
The goal of the ground operation was to restore security for Israel’s citizens by stopping Hamas attacks, Israeli diplomatic sources said, and not to reconquer Gaza and oust Hamas.
The high-stakes move was compelled by Israel’s growing exasperation over unrelenting rocket fire and followed the collapse of Egyptian-led efforts to broker a cease-fire. It also came after a failed attempt by 13 terrorists to infiltrate Israel earlier Thursday through a tunnel under the Gaza-Israel border near Kibbutz Sufa, only to be stopped by an Israeli strike at the mouth of the tunnel.
Israel’s security cabinet approved the ground offensive in principle on Tuesday, after Hamas rejected an Egyptian ceasefire proposal. The resort to ground forces received unanimous approval; centrist Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said she did not take the decision “lightly,” but had “no doubt” that it was necessary.
Israel’s Gaza incursion to focus on locating, destroying tunnels
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3181982/posts
The Israel Defense Forces are currently operating on the ground in several areas throughout the Gaza Strip, from north to south, a senior IDF office said on Friday morning.
After entering the strip at a number of points along the border on Thursday night, infantry and armored forces made their way to predetermined points in agricultural areas of the strip.
By morning they were on the outskirts of populated areas.
The immediate objective of the operation was for the forces to establish themselves in commanding positions, from which they could operate against tunnels running from the strip into Israel.
Before the ground incursion began, a senior officer in the GOC southern command said it would most likely be limited to a depth of three to four kilometers from the Israeli border, and would focus on locating and destroying tunnels. Such an operation, he said, could take between a week and two weeks.
On Thursday, the IDF received the cabinet’s approval to expand the mobilization of up to 18,000 reserve soldiers, and the military commenced drafting thousands of reservists overnight. If the military does call up the full number approved, the total number of troop mobilized due to Operation Protective Edge will number over 70,000 troops.