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Israel: Gaza Operation – A Matter of Time

As tension around the Gaza Strip heightens, top Israeli officials warn that a wide-scale military operation is now only a matter of time.
 
"There is no doubt that we are approaching a wide-scale operation in the Gaza Strip; only this time it will be different from in the past," Deputy Minister of Defense Matan Vilna’i said on Saturday evening during a conference in Beer Sheva.
 
Vilna’i spoke a few hours after several Palestinian rockets hit an Israeli army base east of the Gaza Strip, wounding eight soldiers. One of the soldiers was seriously wounded, and the doctors were forced to amputate one of his legs.
 
Hamas, for its part, announced the rocket attack was not aimed at breaking the calm agreement with Israel. The attack came in response to "crimes of the enemy and the ongoing closure in the Gaza Strip," Hamas Spokesman Ghazi Barhoum told reporters on Saturday.
 
Hamas further announced it would convene in the next few days with other Palestinian resistance movements in Gaza, in order to decide on whether or not to extend the calm agreement, which is due to expire on December 19.
 
The movement said it would condition the continuation of the truce on a full Israeli commitment to meet all its conditions, which include the opening of the border crossings and ceasing all military operations inside the Strip.
 
Israel, however, is signaling that its patience is running low.
 
"The calm agreement in Gaza was a mistake," Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon said on Saturday night during a television interview. "There is no other country in the world that allows a terror organization to fire at a power station that supplies electricity to those who are firing," he said.
 
Contrary to Vilna’i, Ramon is against a military operation that would lead to the re-conquering of Gaza. The deputy premier said Hamas’ rule in Gaza was totally dependent on Israel, which supplies it with electricity, water and infrastructure.
 
"We must not enter Gaza, but we can damage their infrastructure," Ramon said.
 
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army two weeks ago to present its plans for a military operation in case the time would come to implement it.
 
"The calm [agreement] is presently working against the security of the Israeli citizens," Olmert said on November 16.
 
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) completed its preparations for a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip last April, The Media Line’s analysts said.
 
Israel knows, however, that such an operation would cost the lives of many soldiers and that re-conquering and controlling the Gaza Strip would prove to be a complicated and costly move.