JERUSALEM—Israel began today to mass forces on the border of the Gaza Strip as the security cabinet met for the fourth consecutive day to discuss Israel’s response to the murder of three abducted students and a sharp escalation in recent days of rocket fire from Gaza.
The option of a significant military strike, which seemed a strong possibility earlier in the week, appeared to decline sharply after a Palestinian youth was abducted before dawn in east Jerusalem Wednesday and murdered. Israeli commentators said that while the international community would likely have tolerated a strong Israeli military response to the murder of the three students, the murder of the Palestinian youth would now make it far less tolerant towards Israeli military action against Gaza.
However, the incessant rocket fire that continued today has moved the option back onto the agenda. The Israeli press reported the shifting of artillery units to the Gaza area and Palestinians reported a tightening naval cordon off Gaza's coast.
Israeli security officials said today that they still had no clear indication as to whether the Palestinian youth was killed by right-wing Israelis or whether he was the victim of a Palestinian clan feud. Residents of the victim’s neighborhood, Shuafat, have no such doubts and have been rioting for the past two days.
Rioting has also broken out in other Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem as well as in Arab towns inside Israel.
Officials in Jerusalem have made it clear that Israel would prefer to avoid a confrontation in Gaza, which could easily escalate into a ground war that would also see the firing of missiles into the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
"Quiet will be met with quiet," said a military official. "We are not undertaking large scale mobilization." However, that comment suggests that a small scale mobilization is underway and appears to be a muted warning to Hamas that unless it halts the firing of dozens of rockets from Gaza every day Israel will be obliged to seek a military solution.
Hamas officials have also said that they do not seek a confrontation at present with Israel.