Israel takes over belt of northern Gaza

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli armored forces took over a belt of
the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, expanding an offensive
after militants fired rockets that hit a major city,
Palestinian security sources said.

Under covering fire from helicopter gunships, tanks moved
into an area including the rubble of three of the Jewish
settlements evacuated when Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip last
summer after 38 years of occupation.

The Israeli army said that troops had begun moving into the
northern Gaza Strip, from where militants fire rockets into
Israel, but gave no further details. It has said it does not
intend to permanently reoccupy the territory.

Israel vowed on Wednesday to step up a Gaza incursion begun
with the goal of bringing home a captured soldier after rockets
fired hit the city of Ashkelon, 12 km (7 miles) inside Israeli
territory, the furthest the rockets have flown.

The rocket fire has compounded the crisis over the capture
of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on June 25 by
militants from Gaza, including members of the governing Hamas
Islamist movement.

Late on Wednesday, Israeli air strikes killed a Hamas
gunman and a policeman in northern Gaza, bringing the death
toll to 10 — nearly all of them militants — since the Jewish
state began its offensive.

“The Israeli army will strike at the terrorist elements,
Hamas above all, at the time and place we find proper,” Defense
Minister Amir Peretz said in a speech at a naval base on
Wednesday.

“We won’t sink in the Gaza swamp, but will enter any
necessary area to carry out our missions.”

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Israelis and
Palestinians to “step back from the brink,” warning that their
escalating confrontation could soon turn explosive.