Israel to step up Gaza strikes
02/12/2007 16:52  - (SA)  

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Jerusalem - Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Sunday he had authorised the army to target militant structures across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as Israel mulled a broad military incursion into the territory.

Israel has in recent months carried out strikes against rocket-launching cells and infrastructure, but has refrained from targeting Hamas military headquarters since the Islamist movement seized control over Gaza last June, a senior security source told AFP.

The army had now been given the green light to bomb militant structures and positions all over the impoverished Palestinian territory in response to nearly daily rocket fire into southern Israel, he added.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government has been debating whether to launch a broad military operation in Gaza, with Barak repeatedly warning that "every day brings us closer to an operation".

Eighteen Palestinians have been killed in a series of Israeli air and ground operations across Gaza over the past week, marking a sharp escalation in the violence there.

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