Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    GAZA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli army enlarged on Wednesday night its ground operation into northern Gaza Strip by sending more tanks, personnel carriers and armored vehicles as well as troops into the area, witnesses and security sources said.

Remains of a Qassam rocket are seen at a school in Ashkelon, coastal city of Israel on July 4, 2006. (Xinhua Photo)

    The Israeli Television channel II, meanwhile, quoted Israeli army officials as confirming the operation, saying that the army operation would be called "the Sword of Gil'ad", in reference to the captive Israeli soldier Gil'ad Shalit by Palestinian militant groups.

    The officials told the TV channel that the aim of the operation "the Sword of Gil'ad" is to prevent militants from launching homemade rockets from northern Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

    According to Palestinian security sources, Israeli tanks and troops advanced further into northern Gaza Strip and took positions in what was seen as a preparation for a large-scale military operation in response to the capture of Shalit.

    Eyewitnesses said that about a dozen tanks entered the sites of the former Israeli settlement of Nissanit near the Erez border crossing point which had been evacuated in September last year. There were reports on sporadic clashes with Palestinian militants and Israeli troops.

    Two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant and a Palestinian police officer, were killed early Thursday in two separate Israeli strikes on northern Gaza Strip, medics and security sources reported.

    The security sources said that an Israeli reconnaissance drone fired one missile at a group of militants from al-Qassam Brigades, armed wing of the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), killing one of them.

    Medics at Kamal Odwan Hospital confirmed that Osama Hejazi, a Palestinian militant was killed and his body was brought to the hospital in northern Gaza Strip.

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)

    Palestinian security sources, meanwhile said that an Israeli naval gunship fired one artillery shell at a Palestinian police post closed to the northern beach of the Gaza Strip, wounding at least eleven people.

    Medics at the same hospital said that the emergency department of the hospital received 11 casualties, including three in critical conditions, adding that one of them called Rami AbuHashem, a police officer, died of his wounds.

    The scene of the Israeli operation is focused so far on what was declared by Israel as the no-go zone, which was owing to the resumption of Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel after the latter withdrew from Gaza as part of former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon's plan of disengagement.

    The Wednesday night incursion came after the militant group al-Qassam Brigades, which is holding the captive Israeli soldier, announced responsibility for launching two homemade rockets at Israel's southern city of Ashkelon.

    An earlier attack also by the armed wing of the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on the same city hit an empty school on Tuesday in Ashkelon, an incident Israel can't tolerate, according to Israeli army officials.

    However, the Israeli army denied it has intention to carry outmajor operation in northern Gaza Strip.

    "There is military movement in all areas (in northern Gaza Strip) but the operation is not going to be expanded," an army spokesman was quoted by Ramattan news agency as saying.

    The spokesman added that the ongoing incursion aims at stopping Palestinian rocket launchers from firing their crude missiles into southern Israeli communities, and searching for tunnels used by militants to carry out attacks.

    Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli army has reopened Erez crossing, allowing foreigners and journalists to leave the Gaza Strip, but denying entry from Israel into the strip.

    There was also news that Israel has asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to leave the Gaza Strip where he has been stuck since the abduction of the Israeli soldier.

    Three Palestinian militant groups, including governing Hamas'armed wing, the Popular Resistance Committees and its offshoot the Islamic Army, claimed responsibility for the abduction.

    However, Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat has denied the news and told Xinhua that Abbas is staying in Gaza and will stay there until the end of the crisis. Enditem