Israel poised to invade Gaza

TEL AVIV | The threat of an Israeli invasion of the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip loomed Sunday, with the call up of 6,500 reservists during the second day of an air offensive that sparked global protests and the deepest penetration yet by Palestinian rockets into southern Israel.

Israeli bombers targeted 40 smuggling tunnels linking the Gaza Strip to Egypt, while Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Egyptian border police in an attempt to flee the bombing.

The death toll approached 300 and demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world.

The Syrian government broke off indirect peace talks started earlier this year with Israel. A rocket fired from Gaza hit near the port city of Ashdod 18 miles from the border, the deepest penetration yet by Palestinian missiles.

The severity of the attack, the worst in decades, threatened to saddle the incoming Obama administration with its first foreign-policy crisis.

Israel’s Cabinet approved the call-up of reservists, and sent armored divisions and infantry to the Gaza border. The move hinted at a possible ground invasion to complement air sorties that numbered about 300 in the past two days.

Israel’s government reiterated that its Operation Cast Lead would continue until there’s a halt to rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled enclave.

“In the entire history of Israel, I don’t remember any war more pointless than the one Hamas started,” said Israeli President Shimon Peres. He blamed Hamas for the rocket salvos that preceded Israel’s weekend offensive.

“This is a justified operation,” Mr. Peres said.

The Islamist Hamas movement accused Israel of “committing a holocaust as the whole world watches and doesn’t lift a finger to stop it.”

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said the movement “reserves the right to hit back at this aggression with martyr operations,” a reference to suicide bombings inside Israel, according to Agence France-Presse.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the campaign was launched “in order to regain a normal life for the citizens in the south, who have suffered for many years from incessant rocket, mortar and terror attacks.”

Anti-Israeli protests extended to Turkey, one of the few Muslim nations with formal ties to Israel, where the prime minister called the air offensive a “crime against humanity.”

Though some leaders in Israel want a ground invasion to topple the Hamas regime, which seized control in Gaza a year and a half ago, the costs of regime change will be high in terms of casualty rates and in terms of taking care of 1.6 million impoverished Gazans.

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