Israeli troops move toward Gaza
July 3, 2014
Troops, tanks and armored vehicles were moving towards the border area with the Gaza strip after more than a dozen rockets hit southern Israel early on Thursday, two of which hit homes in the border town of Sderot without causing injuries.
It remained unclear on Thursday afternoon if the troop deployment was part of a defensive action on the part of Israel, or whether the Israeli military was preparing a wider operation.
Overnight, the Israeli air force staged 15 strikes against "Hamas" targets in Gaza, thought to include concealed rocket launchers and weapons stores.
Palestinian medics said that 11 people had been injured so far, one of them seriously.
'Excessive retaliation'
The United Nations' human rights chief Navi Pillay condemned the rocket attacks, and was even more critical of the Israeli response to them.
"From a human rights point of view, I utterly condemn these rocket attacks and more especially I condemn Israel's excessive acts of retaliation." said Pillay on Thursday.
There has been mounting unrest in both the West Bank and Gaza in the aftermath of the abduction and murder of three Israeli young Israelis, which sparked a massive search operation by Israeli troops in the West Bank.
In an apparent revenge attack by Jewish extremists, Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was apparently abducted and killed, fanning the flames of unrest. Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli police throughout much of Wednesday, following the discovery of Khdeir's charred body.
Khdeir's funeral, which could trigger more protests, has been delayed to allow for the carrying out of a joint Israeli and Palestinian autopsy.
rc/kms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)