An anti-tank missile from Gaza struck an Israeli bus Monday afternoon, severely wounding a soldier, the military and rescue services said. Palestinians said three people were killed in the Israeli air strikes, and that Israeli jets had attacked a building housing Hamas’s television station.

The barrages followed a night of violence sparked by a covert Israeli operation inside Gaza that went awry when the soldiers were discovered. The raid led to clashes that killed a senior Hamas commander and six other Palestinians, as well as a high-ranking Israeli officer, and set off hours of airstrikes and rocket fire.

Israeli media described the raid as an intelligence-gathering mission, and the military said it was not an attempt to kill or capture senior militants. The army gave few details, with its commander, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, saying only that a special forces team operated “in a very meaningful operation to protect Israel’s security.”

The raid and the high-level casualties threatened to undermine efforts by Egypt and the United Nations to reach a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza and ease the dire humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, which has been under an Israeli and Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power more than a decade ago. Sanctions applied by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, as well as Hamas’s decision to spend its money on weapons rather than infrastructure or social services, have increased the area’s destitution.

Suitcases of Cash

The area is on a knife’s-edge, with reports of an impending cease-fire alternating with warnings of imminent war. Netanyahu was meeting with top ministers and defense officials Monday night to determine how to proceed.

Netanyahu told reporters in Paris on Sunday that he’d rather reach a long-term truce with Hamas than go to war again. Just last week, Israel let a Qatari plane land with cash for Gaza, intended to ease the area’s distress.

“I’m doing everything I can to prevent an unnecessary war,” the Israeli leader told reporters in Paris, shortly before he decided to scrap a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron so he could return early to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu has come under attack at home for allowing the Qatari funds to flow into Gaza, with the photos of cash-stuffed suitcases leading critics to say Israel is paying protection money to Hamas in hopes of achieving quiet. DM