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Israel strikes into Gaza after Hamas rocket salvo
Israeli tanks firing machineguns thrust into Gaza Tuesday, killing one Palestinian militant in a retaliatory raid for the first deadly cross-border rocket strike from the strip that Israel plans to abandon. Troops besieged Beit Hanoun, barely a mile from the Israeli town of Sderot, where makeshift missiles fired by Hamas Islamic militants killed a three-year-old-boy outside a kindergarten and a 49-year-old man Monday.
Similar rockets wounded two people inside Israel Tuesday, intensifying a surge of violence that has complicated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Jewish settlers out of the occupied Gaza Strip next year.
The casualties have fueled anxiety in the Jewish state that leaving Gaza would not stop it being used as a base for attacks -- one of the main arguments of the pullout plan's opponents.
Israeli troops and tanks opened fire as they cut off roads into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a regular launching ground for rockets. They shot dead a top Hamas commander.
Gunfire crackled nearby as thousands of mourners chanted "we will sacrifice our souls for you" at Rasem Odwan's funeral.
Israeli political sources said it could be a prolonged raid into Beit Hanoun, where the rubble of demolished homes and ground scraped clear by bulldozers mark previous attempts by Israel to stop rocket launches.
"We will take control of the launching sites and stay for as long as necessary," said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Residents prepared for a long siege.
"We have a full sack of flour at home. What else could we do. May God protect us all," said Wajeeh Basiouni, 57.
BLOODSHED SPIRALS
Both sides are determined to bloody each other ahead of a Gaza pullout. Militants want to claim victory, while the army aims to puncture Palestinian boasts and prevent Gaza being used to stage attacks into Israel.
Palestinian medics said Israeli troops shot dead a 14-year-old boy on his roof in southern Gaza Tuesday. The army was checking the reports.
Sharon has emphasized that he will not be stopped in his plan, popular with most Israelis and backed by Washington, to remove 7,500 Jewish settlers who live among more than 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
But violence could complicate the process, opposed by some right-wingers who argue that it would embolden militants and give them a base to strike into Israel.
Sharon had ordered a heavy response after the rocket strike on Sderot and the blowing up of an army post Sunday, killing one soldier, political sources said.
"Sharon was willing to overlook Sunday's attack... But a fatal rocket attack on an Israeli city is a different matter, especially during the sensitive period prior to implementation of his disengagement plan," said Aluf Benn of the Haaretz daily.
Helicopters attacked Gaza overnight, hitting a pro-Hamas journal described as a "terrorist communication center" by the army. Another airstrike destroyed a metal foundry, which the army said was used to make weapons.
But Hamas, sworn to destroy Israel and behind dozens of suicide bombings during nearly four years of conflict, said it fired three more Qassam rockets into Israel Thursday. Two Israelis were wounded, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said. In the West Bank, an Israeli man was found shot dead and the army suspected he had been killed by a Palestinian, military sources said. Israeli media said he was a businessman who had ignored army warnings not to travel to the area. |
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