Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

A Palestinian man injured in an Israeli air attack is sent to a nearby hospital in northern Gaza Strip, July 7, 2006. Battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip Thursday have killed at least one Israeli soldier and 15 Palestinians, according to sources from the Israel Defense Forces and a Palestinian hospital medics. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    JERUSALEM, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said on Friday that some 40 Palestinian militants had been killed since the army started a major ground operation in the Gaza Strip on June 28, Israel Radio reported.

    "The terrorists have paid a heavy price so far," Halutz was quoted as saying.

    But he underscored that Israel's blow to Palestinian militant cells in Gaza would not halt rocket attacks against Israel totally.

    "It doesn't mean there won't be rocket fire if we leave tomorrow or the day after", he said, without disclosing when Israel planned to conclude the northern Gaza actions.

    An Israeli soldier and about 20 Palestinians including civilians were killed on Thursday, the bloodiest single day in Gaza since Israel withdrew forces and settlers from it last summer after 38 years of occupation.

    The Israeli army has expanded the operation in Gaza by entering into northern Gaza on Thursday in large numbers aimed to rescue an Israeli soldier abducted by Gazan militants on June 25 and stop the Palestinian rocket firing. Enditem

Related: Palestinian militant shot dead by Israeli troops

    RAMALLAH, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A Palestinian militant was shot dead by Israeli troops in a refugee camp near the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, Palestinian security sources said.

    Tamer Kandil, 22, a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which is an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas'Fatah movement, was killed by Israeli troops in a clash in the Askar refugee camp near Nablus, the sources said.

    Several other Palestinians were also injured when Israeli forces raided the camp and clashed with a group of stone-throwing Palestinians.

    The Israeli army confirmed the raid, without revealing further details.

    The deadly incident came after Thursday's confrontation between Israeli forces and Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, the bloodiest since Israel pulled out soldiers and settlers from the coastal strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

    Israeli troops have expanded their broad military offensive in Gaza, launched on June 28, in a bid to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and stop Palestinian militant rocket firing. Enditem

A Palestinian boy injured in an Israeli air attack is sent to a nearby hospital in northern Gaza Strip, July 7, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

People carry the body of a victim killed in an Israeli air attack, northern Gaza Strip, July 7, 2006. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    Battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip Thursday have killed at least one Israeli soldier and 15 Palestinians, according to sources from the Israel Defense Forces and a Palestinian hospital medics.

    Israeli army confirms soldier's death

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed late Thursday that one of its soldier was killed earlier in the afternoon as IDF troops encountered fierce Palestinian resistance in northern Gaza.

    An IDF spokeswoman told Xinhua that the soldier was shot in the head by gunfire in the Atatara area northwest of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

    Salah al-Din Brigades, armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, has claimed its responsibility for the attack, but the IDF spokeswoman could not provide information on which militant organization responsible for the incident.

    Meanwhile, an IDF spokesman also confirmed the soldier's death to the website of Israeli daily Ha'aretz, saying the soldier was seriously wounded when shot by a Palestinian sniper as his unit took position in a house in the Beit Lahiya neighborhood of al-Attara.

    He was evacuated by an Israeli army helicopter to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva in southern Israel and doctors in the hospital declared later that he died of his wounds.

    The soldier's parents were notified of his death, but his name has not yet been released to the public, according to the report.

    The Israeli army intensified Thursday its aerial, sea and ground operations against militants in northern and southern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 Palestinians and wounding 27 others, six are in critical conditions.

    Large Israeli army infantry and armor units moved into the ruins of three former Jewish settlements in northern Gaza Strip on Thursday predawn.

    The large Israeli army incursion was expanded shortly after homemade rockets fired from northern Gaza Strip and hit the southern coastal city of Ashkelon for the second time in two days.

    The IDF spokesman said that there are efforts to hinder Qassam rocket launchers from targeting Ashkelon and to push them back toward Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.

    Israel kills 15 Palestinians in Gaza: medics

    GAZA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 15 Palestinians were killed and 27 injured in Israeli air and ground assault in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medical sources said.

    Jom'aa al-Saqqa, chief of emergency at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City, said that 13 Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza Strip and two Palestinians were killed near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

    Palestinian security sources said that an Israeli pilotless drone fired one missile at a group of Palestinians militants in al-Essra neighborhood in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia. Palestinian medics at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City said that seven Palestinians were killed and ten were wounded, three of them in critical conditions, in the air strike.

    Meanwhile, two Palestinians, including a militant and a bystander, were killed in shootout between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers north of the town, security sources said.

    In addition, two Palestinians were killed and seven wounded after an Israeli Apache helicopter fired a missile at a group of militants in the southeastern Gaza Strip on Thursday.

    An Islamic Jihad (Holy War) spokesman said that two militants of the group were killed while launching attack on an Israeli armored vehicle in the village of Abbassan, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

    Four more Palestinians were killed in predawn different Israeli air raids on the northern Gaza Strip. Enditem