At least seven Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were reported killed in exchanges of fire Wednesday as Israeli infantry troops backed by armored units mounted a broad offensive in the Gaza Strip following to a Hamas Qassam rocket attack which injured three Israeli children in the southern Israeli town of Sderot Tuesday afternoon.
Elite units led a five-front incursion into Gaza overnight, with combat engineers destroying the homes of four suspected Palestinian activists near Khan Yunis and troops detaining a number of other suspects, Army Radio reported.
The Qassam firing followed the killing of five Israelis in three separate Palestinian attacks Tuesday morning in Tel Aviv, Afula and near Bethlehem.
The dead included three people, one of them a woman, killed when Israeli troops raided the village of Abassan in the south of the strip during an unsuccessful search for a wanted activist, Issam Abu Daqa, the sources said.
Two of the dead were relatives of Abu Daqa, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine group. Witnesses said the Israeli army arrested seven people.
At least 14 Palestinians, including four police officers, were injured by Israeli army and marine gunfire in the north and south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.
They said a rocket, fired by the Israeli marines, had hit a security forces' vehicle in the heights of the northern town of Beit Lahia, seriously injuring three of the passengers and slightly injuring a fourth. Additionally, two Palestinian civilians had been injured by Israeli marine rocket fire in the same area of Beit Lahia.
A seventh Palestinian was injured during an Israeli army incursion into the Rafah refugee camp, which involved around 10 tanks and two bulldozers, the sources said.
Israeli army tanks also entered an eastern suburb of Gaza City early on Wednesday, using heavy machine gun fire, Palestinian security sources said. They told AFP five tanks and two bulldozers had advanced several hundred meters into the neighbourhood of al-Shajiya and were continuing to advance into this area. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
