Israeli troops enter Gaza
Israeli troops backed by tanks and bulldozers crossed into southern Gaza to strike at Palestinian militants today, a day after Israel’s defence minister said a broad operation inside the territory was inevitable.
Three militants were killed and 12 people were wounded in the fiercest clash.
Israel’s Security Cabinet yesterday rejected calls for a large-scale Gaza invasion.
But the government is under mounting public pressure to stop the crude Palestinian rockets that fall daily in southern Israel – including a projectile that struck the yard of a nursery school earlier this week.
No one was hurt in that attack, but images of panicking parents rushing to collect their children from school have prompted renewed calls for government action.
This morning troops and vehicles crossed into Gaza in what the army called a routine operation against militants that involved shoot-outs and an airstrike.
The sides provided conflicting reports of the deadly gun battle in the southern town of Khan Younis.
The army said troops inside Gaza opened fire at a group of militants who approached them, sparking an exchange of fire. Gaza’s Hamas rulers said militants were targeted either by an Israeli tank shell or missile fire from the air. And Dr. Muawiya Hassanin of the Palestinian Health Ministry reported shrapnel wounds consistent with heavy artillery fire.
Ten militants were among the wounded, Hamas said.
Later in the day, Palestinian militants said fighters in a pickup truck and jeep crashed through the fence on the Gaza- Israel border and attacked an Israeli army post.
The army denied the border was breached or a post was attacked. Israeli aircraft struck two cars in the area, the army said, but did not provide further details.
Palestinian attacks on southern Israel have wreaked panic among its southern population and provoked demands for retaliation.
In lieu of a large-scale invasion of Gaza, Israel’s Security Cabinet threatened on Wednesday to cut water, electricity and fuel supplies to the strip.
Later in the day, however, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told a gathering of top defence officials that: “There is recognition that in the end, Israel will have to operate inside the Gaza Strip,” participants at the meeting said.
Israel has mounted such operations in the past, with casualties on both sides, but the large-scale military strikes have failed to quell the rocket fire.
Israeli military experts have said that short of recapturing all of Gaza, there is no military solution to the rocket fire.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Parents in the rocket-scarred Israeli town of Sderot kept their children home again today, demanding better protection.
Children have stayed away from school since the attack on the nursery school today, the second day of the school year.
In other news today, a Palestinian policeman was shot dead by gunmen in the northern West Bank town on Jenin.
Police said Akram Abu Sba, 40, was shot in the chest by Islamic Jihad militants after he stopped their car for a routine check.
