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Israel to target Islamic Jihad militants
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-27 19:01
The Israeli army launched an offensive against Islamic
Jihad militants Thursday, carrying out a series of airstrikes in what Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said would be a "broad and nonstop" response to a suicide
bombing that killed five Israelis.
Masked Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants
attend a news conference in Gaza city, Wednesday Oct. 26, 2005. Dozens of
masked Islamic Jihad militants held a news conference where they said they
were celebrating the suicide bomb attack in the Israeli town of Hadera, a
'great victory as a message to our beloved Palestinian people and Islamic
and Arab nations.' [AP] |
The offensive will include airstrikes and artillery attacks in Gaza and
arrest raids in the northern West Bank, where Wednesday's bomber came from, a
military official said on condition of anonymity under military regulations. As
a last resort, Israel could re-enter Gaza, which it evacuated last month.
Israeli media reported that troops would also retake Palestinian towns, and
conduct house-to-house searches.
The threatened Israeli response to the bombing in the central town of Hadera
ratcheted up pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to confront militant
groups. Abbas has refused to crack down on armed groups such as Islamic Jihad,
fearing civil war.
Sharon said the military operation was necessary because of Abbas' refusal to
take action and said it would be impossible to resume peace talks until the
Palestinians rein in the militants.
"Unfortunately the Palestinian Authority has not taken any serious action to
battle terrorism," Sharon said before meeting the visiting Russian foreign
minister, Sergey Lavrov. "We will not accept under any circumstances a
continuation of terrorism. Therefore our activities will be broad and nonstop
until they halt terrorism."
"The state of Israel would very much have liked to move
peace efforts forward," he added. "To my regret, as long as terror continues we
shall not be able to move forward as we would have wished."
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