RAMALLAH – Israel is weighing the option of a wide-scale military offensive against Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli army's official said Tuesday. The official told the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv that Israel has no choice but to launch a wide-scale military operation against the coastal enclave in response the firing of rockets into southern Israel. The Hamas' military wing Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad movement claimed responsibility for firing some 50 mortar shells and rockets toward southern Israeli cities Monday morning. Shrapnel from the shells caused damage to some residential buildings, but no injuries were reported. Palestinian officials said that five civilians in Gaza Strip were wounded as a result of the Israeli aerial strikes later on the day. The Palestinian movements said in a statement that they were responding to the Israeli army targeting two militants in the Gaza Strip Sunday, reportedly killing one of them, and injuring 11 civilian bystanders. According to the Israeli official, the operation would include a large-scale ground incursion, not unlike the 2008-2009 Israeli offensive in the area. The Gaza war report, conducted by a UN fact-finding mission led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, found that Israel has committed war crimes in its offensive which killed 1,400 Palestinians. Amnesty International confirmed that 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the offensive. Of these, 300 were children, more than 115 were women and about 85 were men over the age of 50. Amnesty said that another 200 of the men who were under 50 were unarmed civilians who were not combatants. Some 5,000 Palestinians were wounded during the fighting. Amnesty International also found that more than 3,000 Palestinian homes and hundreds of other properties were destroyed during the fighting and more than 20,000 structures were damaged. In addition to private homes, the Israeli forces destroyed factories, workshops, animal farms, orchards, government buildings, police stations and prisons. Several international human rights groups have said that Israel fired white phosphorus during its offensive in Gaza Strip. Amnesty delegates visited the Gaza Strip and claimed to have found indisputable evidence of widespread use of white phosphorus in densely populated residential areas in Gaza City and in the north. Israel has argued that use of the shell was in line with international law and that since it was not a traditional white phosphorus incendiary weapon it could be used in populated areas.
