Israel warns of more strikes

Netanyahu to Gazans: Any Hamas facility a fair target

A Palestinian inspects the rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
A Palestinian inspects the rubble of a damaged building after an Israeli strike in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2014. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that any militant target was fair game, as aircraft struck dozens of sites, and his defense minister hinted at a new ground incursion.

"I urge Gaza residents to immediately evacuate all facilities used by Hamas to carry out terrorist activities," Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting held at military headquarters Sunday in Tel Aviv, according to an emailed statement. "Every such site is a target for us."

Targets on Sunday included a house, two men in a car and another on a motorbike, according to the pro-Hamas Al-Rai news agency. At least 15 Palestinians were killed, bringing the death toll from seven weeks of hostilities to more than 2,100, according to Gaza Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra. Sixty-eight on the Israeli side, all but four of them soldiers, have died since Israel embarked on its offensive.

The stakes rose last week when Israeli airstrikes killed three senior Hamas military leaders and the wife and two children of the group's top military commander, Mohammed Deif. An Israel airstrike Sunday killed Mohammed al-Oul, who was "responsible for Hamas's financial transaction of terror funds," the army said.

Israel will "continue pounding Hamas, at this point from the air," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said at the Cabinet meeting. "We aren't going to stop there, and have a variety of options to inflict damage on Hamas."

Israel suspended its ground war Aug. 5 under a short-lived truce. Israeli ministers authorized the call-up of 10,000 reserve troops last week.

On Saturday, Israeli aircraft toppled a Gaza apartment building the military said was a Hamas command center. The building had been emptied after the military warned it would be attacked. The military also said schools, hospitals and cemeteries in Gaza have been used throughout the conflict as launching pads for more than 400 rockets.

Israel, like the U.S. and European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist organization. About 4,000 rockets have been fired at Israel during the past seven weeks, and the Israeli military has carried out more than 5,000 strikes on Gaza, the army said. On Sunday, the air force struck about 45 targets by late afternoon, and militants barraged Israel with more than 90 rockets and mortars, the army said.

Trying to capitalize on the gruesome video of an American journalist's beheading by the Islamic State extremist group, Netanyahu on Sunday sought to portray Hamas is an equally vicious foe as he tries to rally international support in the Gaza conflict.

A day after the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, posted the video of journalist James Foley's killing, Netanyahu debuted his latest catchphrase: "Hamas is ISIS. ISIS is Hamas." He voiced the slogan again at the Cabinet meeting Sunday.

"Many countries in the region and the West are beginning to understand that this is one front," Netanyahu said. "They are branches of the same poisoned tree."

Meanwhile, aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he will soon appeal to the international community to set a deadline for Israel to end its occupation of lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war and make way for an independent Palestinian state.

The aides said Abbas would present his proposal as part of a "day after" plan after the end of the current war in the Gaza Strip. Abbas is expected to unveil his plan at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because he has not yet made the plan public.

One official said Abbas has grown disillusioned after two decades of failed efforts to reach a negotiated peace settlement with Israel. He said the Palestinians want a fixed date for an Israeli withdrawal from lands claimed by the Palestinians and a timetable for establishing a Palestinian state.

"This should be done through a mechanism to compel Israel as the occupying power to end its occupation and agree on a timetable for the implementation of the withdrawal," he said.

Information for this article was contributed by Calev Ben-David and Saud Abu Ramadan of Bloomberg News and by Mohammed Daraghmeh and Daniel Estrin of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/25/2014

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