Israel presses Gaza offensive after 20 killed

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces dug in across a swathe of
the northern Gaza Strip on Friday after the bloodiest day of
fighting with militants in nearly two years left 19
Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead.

The army pushed deep into the territory on Thursday, taking
over areas that Israel abandoned last year on an offensive
launched with the aim of bringing home a captured soldier and
halting rocket fire into the Jewish state.

The incursion has piled more pressure on the Palestinian
government of the Hamas Islamist militant group, already
reeling from a Western aid embargo. Any lingering hope that
peace talks could be revived has been dashed by the violence.

The Israeli army said it had carried out two air strikes
against militants near the town of Beit Lahiya in northern
Gaza, killing four. Witnesses and medics said six Palestinian
civilians died in one of the deadliest strikes on Thursday.

Beit Lahiya was also the scene of heavy ground fighting,
with gunmen from various Palestinian factions fighting running
battles with Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters.

Both sides prepared for more bloodshed. A shell hit an
empty building of one of the Palestinian security forces.
Israeli helicopters circled above. Edgy gunmen scurried through
side streets and prepared bombs to attack any Israeli advance.

“What is happening on Palestinian land is a crime against
humanity,” said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas on a
visit to the wounded. “The Israeli killing machine must stop.”

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered tanks deep into
Gaza after Hamas militants fired rockets into a major Israeli
city for the first time. The offensive began last week with the
main goal of winning the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit,
captured in a raid from Gaza on June 25.

“I don’t know if we will succeed to free Gilad or if we
will stop the rocket fire,” said Tzachi Hanegbi, a senior
member of Olmert’s Kadima party.

“The policies are aimed at making clear that Israel’s
patience has been tested, that it has a right to self defense
and that the price it has paid is intolerable.”

Despite taking over what amounts to a buffer zone inside
Gaza, Israeli officials say that there is no plan for long term
re-occupation of territory given up last year after 38 years of
military rule.

FORMER SETTLEMENTS

The rubble of former Jewish settlements has often been used
for firing rockets into Israel. Defying the Israeli presence,
militants launched several overnight.

A Palestinian security source said over 100 tanks had
crossed into Gaza with more amassing outside.

The longer an offensive goes on, the more likely Israel
will come under international pressure to pull back.

At the United Nations in New York, Arab states asked the
Security Council to demand that Israeli forces immediately
withdraw from Gaza, but France and the United States criticized
their proposed resolution as unbalanced.

The immediate trigger for expanding the offensive was
Tuesday’s rocket strike on Ashkelon, 12 km (7 miles) from Gaza,
and the furthest point reached by one of the makeshift missiles
that spread panic but cause few casualties.

Israeli leaders would be quite happy if the operation
resulted in the fall of Hamas — whose charter calls for
Israel’s destruction, but there is little idea of what might
take the place of the Islamist group.

Hamas accuses Israel of using Shalit’s abduction as a
pretext to topple its elected administration. Israel has
detained more than one-third of Haniyeh’s cabinet and hinted it
could assassinate Hamas leaders if Shalit is killed.

Twenty-seven Palestinians, the majority of them militants,
have been killed since the offensive began.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in Jerusalem)