After rocket fire on South, US says Israel has the right to defend itself. - IDF to call up 1,500 reservists as it prepares for Gaza escalation

The United States responded after a volley of dozens of rockets was fired from Gaza at Israel on Monday night with US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying Israel has the right to defend itself.
[jpost.com]
7/7/14
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• IDF to call up 1,500 reservists as it prepares for Gaza escalation ...

Security cabinet decides to step up attacks to halt rocket fire, says operation will be expanded as necessary.....

Israel's security cabinet decided Monday after a three-hour meeting to escalate attacks against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. Senior officials in Jerusalem said that the ministers decided to refrain from a large-scale military operation for now, but ordered the army to prepare for significant expansion of the operation. 

The Israel Defense Forces is preparing to call up some 1,500 reservists from two infantry brigades around the Gaza Strip as it prepares for the escalation, according to an IDF officer.

The official in Jerusalem said the escalation was aimed at halting the rocket fire and would be expanded as necessary if the launches did not cease. 

“The blows will be harder,” one of the senior officials said. “Each succeeding day will be harder for Hamas. We will escalate the attacks to make it clear to them that it is in their interest to stop the rocket fire. We are prepared to broaden the operation in case the rocket fire does not stop.” 

The senior officials said that Egyptian intelligence continues to convey messages between Israel and Hamas in an effort to calm things down. They said that while the messages coming from Hamas stated, among other things, a desire for calm and a cease-fire, the behavior of Hamas operatives on the ground was the opposite. “There is an internal dispute between the Hamas’s military wing and its political leadership,” one of the senior Israeli officials said. “[Sunday] it seemed that they were heading toward a cease-fire and that things on the ground had calmed down, but today the situation is reversed.” 

The reservists will include Border Police officers deployed to replace units in the army's other fronts. "The IDF is preparing for the possibility that the operation will expand," an IDF officer said. "We are demonstrating increasing efforts and increasing our preparedness in the field already. The remark 'Quiet for quiet' was said last Thursday, today we are preparing for escalation." 

The defense establishment believes that not only is Hamas failing to prevent the rocket fire on Israel's southern communities, which have increased in recent hours, but that it is launching the projectiles itself......................http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.603600

7/7/14

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