Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault 

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R2), Defense Minister Amir Peretz (R1) and some generals on Wednesday hold a military meeting in which they decided to expand the ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip in reaction to stepped-up Palestinian rocket attack. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    JERUSALEM, July 5 (Xinhua) -- An urgent meeting of Israeli security cabinet convened by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided on Wednesday to expand the ongoing military operation in the Gaza Strip in reaction to stepped-up Palestinian rocket attack.

    Local media said that the cabinet also decided to create a "security buffer zone" in the northern Gaza Strip in a bid to prevent attacks on innocent civilians.

    A Qassam rocket landed at the center of the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon for the first time on Tuesday evening, causing damages to a high school building but no injury. It was the furthest north in Israel that a Qassam fired from Gaza has reached, signaling that Palestinian militants have improved the range of the primitive weapons.

    Hamas' armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

A policeman asks the children to leave the scene after a Qassam rocket landed in a school in Ashkelon, coastal city of Israel on July 4, 2006.(Xinhua Photo)

    In response to the strike, Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Tuesday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to step up the pace and force of its operation in the Gaza Strip to secure the return of an abducted Israeli soldier.

    Israeli security forces foiled on Wednesday "a large-scale terror attack" set to be launched in the center of the country after a would-be attacker was arrested, local Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said.

    According to the report, Israeli defense establishment currently holds 19 specific alerts regarding plans to carry out attacks, most of them are related to the Islamic Jihad.

    On Wednesday, Israeli troops killed a wanted Fatah militant in the West Bank town of Jericho, who was allegedly involved in potential attacks and was responsible for an attack in 2000 in which an Israeli taxi driver was killed.

    In addition, Israel Defense Forces nabbed ten wanted Palestinian militants in the West Bank, who are believed to be operatives from Hamas and Fatah. Enditem