The IDF recalled 2,000 reservists on Wednesday who had been recently released from duty after Palestinian terrorists in Gaza renewed their rocket fire upon Israel Tuesday afternoon.
IDF tanks and armored personnel vehicles are gathering along Israel’s southern border with Gaza as the army begins to bolster is forces in the area in preparation for a possible renewal of operations in Gaza.
During the height of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF called up some 86,000 reservists to the Gaza Strip as part of a ground incursion into Gaza. Majority of the reservists have already been sent home or were to be released in the coming days.
On Tuesday afternoon, some eight hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was set to expire, terrorists in the Strip fired a volley of rockets upon Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately ordered retaliatory strikes in Gaza against known terror targets. The prime minister has previously warned Hamas that peace will be met with peace and fire will be met with fire.
The IDF confirmed that 60 “terror sites” were targeted by the IAF overnight.
In one of the airstrikes carried out in the Strip on Tuesday night, the IDF targeted the location of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad Deif. The leader of Hamas’s armed military wing, Deif was not killed in the strike, but his wife and infant daughter were. Deif has escaped numerous assassination attempts in the past.
Overnight, a heavy barrage of rockets were fired all across Israel, including southern communities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with many being intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
The Abdul Qader Husseini Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, claimed responsibility for some of the rocket fire directed at Ashkelon.
Shortly after the rocket fire commenced on Tuesday, Israel pulled its negotiating team from Cairo where indirect ceasefire negotiations for a long-term truce have been held for the last couple of weeks.
In Cairo, Palestinian negotiators blamed the collapse of peace talks on Israel. “We told the Egyptians we are ready to return to the talks once they find the proper atmosphere,” Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of the Palestinian team, said.
“It’s clear that the Israelis are not interested in the ceasefire. We did not hear from them. We were willing to, but we did not hear from them,” he said.
Mark Regev, spokesman for the Prime Minister Office in Israel, laid blame squarely on Hamas. “When Hamas broke the ceasefire and fired rockets into Israel, they also violated the premise of the talks, which were based on an unconditional and total ceasefire,” he said.
Regev would not confirm whether Israel would agree to return to the negotiating table with Hamas.
As of Wednesday morning, more than 100 rockets have been fired upon Israel. Public shelters were reopened by Israel’s civil defense authority, the Home Front Command. All public bomb shelters within 50 miles (80 km) of Gaza can now be accessed. Air raid sirens continue to sound across the south.
