MIDDLE EAST: Israeli forces sharply steps up its offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza

Record ID: 412786

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israeli forces sharply steps up its offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza
  • Date: 6th July 2006
  • Summary: (W3) KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA (JULY 6, 2006) (REUTERS) PEOPLE RUNNING DOWN STREET CARRYING WOUNDED MAN AND PUTTING HIM IN AMBULANCE PEOPLE ATTENDING TO WOUNDED MAN CAR AND AMBULANCE LEAVING SCENE MAN WITH CHILDREN RUNNING DOWN STREET PEOPLE MOVING WOUNDED MAN INTO CAR/PEOPLE TELLING ANOTHER CAR TO MOVE BACK
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA1D36XOMEZ8JUUC8Y0EGAGS0O5
  • Story Text: Israeli forces sharply stepped up an offensive against Palestinian militants in Gaza on Thursday (July 6), fighting running battles with gunmen and killing 12 people in the worst violence since the cross-border operation began.
    Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered tanks to push deeper into Gaza overnight after militants from the ruling Hamas movement fired rockets into a major Israeli city for the first time.
    The incursion -- nearly a year since Israel quit Gaza after 38 years of occupation -- expands an offensive that began last week with the main goal of bringing home a captured soldier.
    Beit Lahiya was the scene of the heaviest ground fighting, where gunmen from various factions fired anti-tank rockets at Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships.
    An Israeli air strike near Beit Lahiya killed five Palestinians, witnesses and medics said.
    An Israeli tank shell killed two militants near Beit Lahiya, the Hamas armed wing said. Tank fire also killed one civilian, the victim's family said.
    Medics said around 30 Palestinians were wounded.
    The Israeli army denied tanks were inside Beit Lahiya and said ground troops were doing most of the fighting.
    Air strikes near the southern town of Khan Younis killed a civilian and a militant, witnesses said. An army spokeswoman said aircraft had targeted militants who fired seven anti-tank missiles at Israeli forces. She said the dead were militants.
    The stepped-up incursion has intensified pressure on the Hamas-led government, already facing Israeli threats over the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25. Hamas gunmen were among those who seized him.
    Several Hamas lawmakers and government members including Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdel-Razek have appeared in court a week after being seized by Israel in a move the Islamic group said aimed to topple its government.
    Tanks earlier pushed into the ruins of three of the 21 Jewish settlements evacuated when Israel left Gaza last year.
    The military said Israeli forces would stay in the area, several kilometres inside northern Gaza, "until the completion of their mission". Qassam rockets are often fired from the former northern Gaza settlements at Israel.
    "The current ground effort is focused on what you might call a Qassam-net, which is the territories, the areas, from which the Qassam rockets were launched towards Israel in the last couple of months and it is very focused on the terrorists that are connected to the Qassam rocket launching, infrastructure and so on," said Israeli Defence Force Spokesman Brigadier General Ido Nehushtan.
    Gunmen killed a soldier in northern Gaza, where clashes raged, Al Jazeera television said.
    The army had no comment on the report but said three soldiers were hurt, one seriously. One of whom was evacuated via Netiv Ha'asara where Israeli forces have been entering northern Gaza.
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