As cease-fire with Hamas fails to take shape, Netanyahu says, ‘Our answer is fire’
Griff Witte and William Booth
JERUSALEM — Plans for a truce devolved into threats of a wider war Tuesday as the first significant attempt to end more than a week of round-the-clock fire between Israel and Hamas ended before it had even begun.
The unraveling of an Egyptian cease-fire proposal offered little immediate hope for a diplomatic solution to a conflict that has left at least 204 Palestinians in Gaza dead and that on Tuesday claimed its first Israeli fatality.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave the military authorization to use “full force” against militants in Gaza and vowed that Hamas and its allies would suffer for their decision not to halt their rocket fire into Israel.
“Hamas chose to continue fighting and will pay the price for that decision,” Netanyahu said in a televised address Tuesday evening. “When there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire.”
By early Wednesday morning, Israel had struck at least 25 targets inside Gaza, including the home of a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al Zahar, according to Israeli news reports. Hamas militants fired at least 13 rockets into southern Israel, seven of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, said Israel’s military in Twitter feeds. Several Palestinians were killed in the predawn hours of Wednesday, according to Palestinian health officials.