Israel May Have to Invade Gaza, Vice-PM Says

Two Palestinian rockets struck deep inside Israel after an Israeli Defence Forces shelling killed nine people in Gaza Tuesday.

The situation looks eerily similar to the lead-up to the 2009 Gaza war, which left 1,000 Palestinian civilians and 13 Israelis dead. A militant group with ties to Hamas launched a barrage of rockets into Israel over the weekend, supposedly in retaliation for Israeli air strikes in Gaza. No one was killed, but Israel responded by shelling the Palestinian territory, killing five militants and four civilians. Two more Palestinian rockets hit the Israeli cities of Beersheba and Ashdod on Wednesday, and Israeli Vice-Premier Silvan Shalom said his government may have to consider reinvading Gaza to stop the rocket fire, even though he admitted doing so would bring the already seething Middle East region into a “far more combustible situation.”