Israeli forces enter Gaza city
Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza in two places early today, killing four Palestinians, witnesses and doctors said, while both sides indicated changes in tactics, moving toward guerrilla warfare.
Entering Gaza City for the first time in nearly 17 months of conflict, tanks went into Sejaieh neighbourhood, which straddles the main north-south road through the Gaza Strip, and approached Beach camp, a sprawling refugee complex, according to witnesses.
On a hilltop in Sejaieh, troops blew up a local broadcasting station, witnesses said. Residents all over the city could see the transmission tower collapse, putting Palestine TV off the air. The radio was transmitting from another location.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment. Residents said Israeli troops were pulling out of Gaza City after three hours.
Loudspeakers on mosques called on Palestinians to confront the Israeli invaders, and police and gunmen raced to the scene of the incursions. The sound of heavy gunfire reverberated all over the city of about 300,000. Two police were hurt, doctors said.
In southern Gaza, residents said Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered the Rafah refugee camp after midnight local time and destroyed the house of a militant who killed an Israeli woman and two soldiers on Monday, before he was killed by troops. Doctors said four people were killed and 35 wounded by bullets in the incursion.
A few hours earlier, Israeli warplanes and helicopters struck Palestinian police structures in Gaza and the West Bank, at the end of a full day of reprisals for a series of Palestinian attacks, including a surprise assault on a West Bank checkpoint in which six Israeli soldiers were killed. In all, 18 Palestinians were killed yesterday.
The roadblock assault appeared to mark a turning point in tactics for both sides. Palestinians said the assault reflected a new focus on targeting Israel’s occupation in the West Bank and Gaza as opposed to attacks within Israel itself.
Militants would redirect attacks against settlers and soldiers in the West Bank and Gaza and scale down operations inside Israel, said several Palestinians close to the militant groups. The aim is to focus attention on the lands Palestinians claim for a state and rally world support, they said.
In response, Israeli officials said they would relate to the conflict as a guerrilla war. Up to now the Israelis have referred to the violence as terrorism, as opposed to guerrilla warfare, implying clashes between irregular forces and Israel’s army.
Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said tactics would include small, commando-style raids and more targeted killings of militants suspected of involvement in terrorism against Israelis, but Israel would not target Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, even though it blames him for failing to stop the violence.
Mr Arafat has been trapped in his West Bank headquarters in the town of Ramallah, surrounded by Israeli tanks, for more than two months. Mr Gissin suggested Israel might even stop the stream of foreign diplomats going to meet him there.
Mr Sharon said that Israeli pressure on Mr Arafat was meant to speed his replacement by other leaders. ‘‘The heavier the pressure will be, the shorter will be the time when we will perhaps have someone else to negotiate,’’ he said.
