Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Thursday evening instructed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to start a ground action to strike at terrorist tunnels used by Hamas from the Gaza Strip to infiltrate into Israel.
A solidarity mission of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) got underway on Wednesday as 57 international Jewish community leaders arrived in Jerusalem for meetings. A further 21 Israeli leaders and WJC staff also took part in the mission, which was organized at very short notice.
Netanyahu's office says purpose of mission is to destroy terror tunnels and seriously harm the infrastructure of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.
Close to 100,000 leaflets containing warning message were dropped over the territory and hundreds of thousands of citizens receive messages telling them to vacate villages; security cabinet to convene Friday morning.
Israel’s army foiled a large-scale infiltration attempt along the Gaza border, during which 13 armed Palestinians emerged from a tunnel on the Israeli side of the border at dawn Thursday, an IDF spokesperson said.
Pause in IDF campaign to begin at 10:00 a.m. local time; Livni told Channel 2 that Israel will have no choice but to launch a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip if rocket fire against Israeli towns continues.
Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, accompanied by her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, visited in Ashdod, in the south of Israel, a house in a residential area hit by ongoing rockets from Gaza.
European Union leaders are discussing the situation in the Middle East and in particular current developments of the deteriorating situation in the south of Israel and the Gaza Strip, at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
