A Lebanese newspaper reported at the weekend that the Bush Administration has given Israel a green light to launch a major military ground operation in the Gaza Strip in order to curb the terrorist rocket fire plaguing communities across southwestern Israel.
Citing "credible diplomatic sources," the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said that Israeli intelligence had convinced Washington that a broad ground incursion into Gaza would improve chances for peace by severely limiting the rocket attacks and stemming the flow of advanced arms into the Hamas-controlled territory via its shared border with Egypt.
Hamas' control of Gaza and its use of the coastal strip as a platform to launch daily artillery attacks against southern Israel is seen as a major obstacle to US efforts to oversee a final status peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.
Terrorists operating out of northern Gaza fired more than a dozen mortar shells and rockets at Jewish communities in southern Israel at the weekend, causing damage but, miraculously, no injuries.