In its efforts to prepare for a new offensive on Gaza, Israel called up 2,000 reserve soldiers this week to simulate an attack on the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli newspaper reported the Israeli army saying that action is part of the military’s largest planned exercise of 2017.
The surprise drill began on Sunday and was conducted by the Sinai Division of the Israeli Southern Command’s reserve division.
Israeli military sources said that the exercise included four reserve brigades — two infantry and two armoured brigades.
The soldiers simulated an offensive on the Gaza Strip, including a ground invasion into the coastal enclave, which has been under strict Israeli siege for more than ten years.
Chief of the Israeli army Gadi Eisenkot visited the exercise in order to “assess the preparedness of the division for emergency.”
“We have put preparedness at the top of the IDF’s list of priorities. This is evident from the increased training programme,” Eisenkot told the reservists.
Israeli carried out three major offensives on Gaza in the last eight years and claimed the lives of thousands of the Gaza residents and wounded tens of thousands.
The Israeli offensives also destroyed tens of thousands of the Palestinian homes and civil facilities, including schools, hospitals and mosques.
Today at dawn, the Israeli occupation army opened tank fire at Palestinian youths in southern Gaza, killed one and wounded two others.
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