Barak 'planning Gaza attack'

Dubai: New Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak is planning within weeks a military attack on Gaza aimed at combating Hamas in the strip, a British newspaper reported yesterday.

Barak, who is set to take over as Israel's defence minister today, "is planning an attack on Gaza within weeks to crush the Hamas militants who have seized power there," wrote Sunday Times in a report from its correspondent in occupied Jerusalem.

"According to senior Israeli military sources, the plan calls for 20,000 troops to destroy much of Hamas's military capability in days," it added.

The operation, said the sources quoted by Times, would be "triggered by Hamas rocket attacks against Israel or a resumption of suicide bombings".

The British newspaper said Barak "has already demanded detailed plans to deploy two armoured divisions and an infantry division, accompanied by assault drones and F-16 jets, against Hamas ... The Israeli forces would expect to be confronted by about 12,000 Hamas fighters with arms confiscated from the Fatah faction that they defeated in last week's three-day civil war in Gaza."

Quoting a source described as close to Barak, Sunday Times wrote, "Israel could not tolerate an aggressive 'Hamastan' on its border and an attack seemed unavoidable. The question is not if but how and when," he said.

At the same time, Israeli officials believe their forces would face "even tougher resistance in Gaza" than they encountered during last summer's war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon.