REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM - Gazans fired a rocket aimed at Jerusalem on Friday, setting off air raid sirens throughout the city and opening a new front in three days of fierce fighting between Israel and armed groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli campaign -coded as Pillar of Defense- has been limited to airstrikes so far. But military officials say they are considering expanding it to a ground campaign. Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a military spokeswoman, said the military had called 16,000 reservists to duty on Friday as it geared up for a possible ground offensive.
She said the army had authority to draft an additional 14,000 soldiers. She would not say where the troops were deployed. As air-raid sirens went off in Jerusalem, witnesses said they saw a stream of smoke in Mevasseret Zion, a Jerusalem suburb.
An attack on Israel's self-declared capital marks a major escalation by Gazans, both for its symbolism and its distance from the Palestinian territory. Located roughly 75 kilometers (50 miles) away from the Gaza border, Jerusalem had been thought to be beyond the range of Gaza rocket squads.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Hamas militant wing, said the group had fired a long-range rocket at Jerusalem. "We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine and we plan more surprises," he said. Hamas officials said the rocket was a homemade "M-75" rocket, a weapon that has never been fired before.
It also marks a bit of a gamble for the Gazans. Gush Ezion is close to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and just a few kilometers (miles) from the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, one of Islam's holiest sites. Jews call the compound the Temple Mount because of the biblical Jewish temples that once stood there. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Jerusalem and nearby areas of the West Bank.
Meanwhile along the border Friday, Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and military bulldozers were parked in neat rows. Soldiers milled about, while buses filled with soldiers moved in the area.
In all, 23 Palestinians have been killed, including 11 civilians, according to Gaza health officials, and 250 people wounded. Three Israelis were killed when a rocket hit an apartment building in southern Israel.
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