Israel widens Gaza offensive

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel widened its offensive in the Gaza
Strip on Sunday, killing a Palestinian civilian in southern
Gaza and three militants in the north, while also pursuing a
second front against Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

The Gaza operation, aimed at recovering a captured soldier
and stopping armed groups from firing makeshift rockets, has
piled pressure on the Palestinian government led by Hamas,
which demands a prisoner swap for the Israeli corporal.

Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers, backed by
helicopters firing machine guns, moved in darkness into
farmland near the town of Beit Hanoun, an area militants have
often used to fire rockets.

Militants blew up hidden bombs and fired anti-tank
grenades.

Three gunmen were killed in an Israeli air strike. At least
10 other Palestinians were wounded in that and other air
attacks. The army said it had also opened fire on a group of
men spotted carrying an anti-tank grenade launcher.

In southern Gaza, parts of which Israeli forces raided
after the abduction, the army killed a Palestinian woman in her
home, medics said. Palestinian witnesses said an Israeli tank
shell landed near her house, sending shrapnel flying inside.

The army had no immediate comment. Palestinian medics
confirmed the woman’s death.

HAMAS OFFICE TARGETED

The air force also targeted a Hamas office in the Islamist
stronghold of Jabalya.

“We’re operating against terrorist infrastructure and to
stop the firing of rockets,” said one military source.

Israeli troops had pulled out of the northern Gaza Strip a
week earlier after a major raid into the territory, which
Israel abandoned in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.

Israel killed two Palestinians and attacked the economy
ministry on Saturday, striking at the Hamas administration.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for the fate of Corporal Gilad
Shalit, who was captured in a raid from Gaza on June 25.

Israel has said it will not discuss a prisoner exchange.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed more than 85
people, about half of them militants.

At the same time, Israel has been waging an offensive aimed
at crippling Hizbollah after the group captured two soldiers in
an attack on Israel, killed eight others and rained rockets on
the northern part of Israel.

At least 104 people, all but four of them civilians, have
been killed in the mounting Israeli assault on Lebanon.