Israeli forces, Gaza gunmen in fierce clash

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza (Reuters) – Fierce fighting erupted
between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza
on Thursday after Israel sent tanks and armored vehicles into
the area to quell militant rocket fire.

Tanks and helicopter gunships fired at militant positions
inside the town of Beit Lahiya. Gunmen from various factions
responded with automatic weapons. Ambulances raced to the
scene, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israeli forces seized three former Jewish settlements in
the Gaza Strip overnight, expanding an offensive that began
last week with the main goal of bringing home a captured
soldier.

The incursion, ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
carved out a buffer zone after gunmen from the governing Hamas
movement fired rockets into a major Israeli city for the first
time.

Beit Lahiya lies near the three ruined settlements.

As the clash broke out, tanks moved inside the western part
of the town, where they confronted gunmen from Hamas, Islamic
Jihad and also the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade of President Mahmoud
Abbas’s Fatah movement, Reuters witnesses said.

The streets were largely deserted as residents stayed home.

Backed by fire from helicopter gunships, the tanks earlier
pushed into the ruins of three of the 21 Jewish settlements
evacuated when Israel left Gaza last year after 38 years of
occupation. One Hamas militant was killed in an air strike.

“Our presence there doesn’t mean that we intend to remain
in the Gaza Strip. We simply want to prevent firing at our
towns,” National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer,
a member of Olmert’s security cabinet, told Israeli Army Radio.

The military said Israeli forces would stay in the area,
several kilometers inside northern Gaza, “until the completion
of their mission” and called on Palestinian civilians to stay
clear of combat zones.

Rockets are often fired from the former settlements.

Israeli political sources said Olmert had effectively
decided to carve out a buffer zone to halt the rocket attacks.
But the prime minister’s office said the offensive would not
amount to re-occupying parts of the strip long-term.

Hamas rockets hit Ashkelon, a city of 115,000, on Tuesday
and Wednesday. It was the furthest point hit by the missiles,
which cause few casualties but spread panic.

The stepped-up incursion in northern Gaza 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.

“GAZA SWAMP”

“We won’t sink in the Gaza swamp, but will enter any
necessary area to carry out our missions,” Defense Minister
Amir Peretz said on Wednesday.

The Gaza violence has dampened enthusiasm for Olmert’s plan
to give up some isolated settlements in the occupied West Bank,
while strengthening the main blocs there. Olmert’s opponents
say the lesson from Gaza is that giving up land may not bring
peace.

Palestinians seek at least the West Bank and Gaza, captured
in a 1967 war, for a state with Arab East Jerusalem as its
capital. Hamas is sworn to destroy Israel.

A total of 11 Palestinians, almost all of them militants,
have been killed since the offensive began. Israel has also
detained dozens of Hamas officials, applying pressure to the
government already under an international aid embargo.

Hamas accuses Israel of trying to topple its elected
administration, an outcome that would please Israeli leaders.

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

Israel has hinted it could assassinate leaders of Hamas
unless Shalit was freed. There has been little information on
Shalit since he was captured, but Israel has said it believes
he is still alive.