- Israeli tanks and troops yesterday began the largest
reoccupation of northern Gaza since the start of the Palestinian uprising
four years ago.
-
- Ariel Sharon ordered the tanks in to prevent Hamas from
scuppering his plan to withdraw Jewish settlers from the territory and
impose an emasculated state on the Palestinians.
-
- The Israeli offensive follows a Hamas rocket attack that
killed two small children in the Israeli town of Sderot. Israel radio quoted
Mr Sharon as telling his cabinet: "What can we do? The Jews, too,
have a right to live. If this entails difficulties for the Palestinians,
that is part of the price."
-
- Hundreds of soldiers backed by about 200 tanks, armoured
vehicles and helicopters reoccupied the towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun
and took control of a 9km-wide area along the border.
-
- The army also strengthened its force in Jabaliya refugee
camp, where soldiers faced stiff resistance when they entered the Hamas
and Islamic Jihad stronghold on Thursday that left nearly 30 people dead
in some of the bloodiest fighting of the intifada.
-
- At least five Palestinians were killed in Israeli rocket
strikes on Jabaliya yesterday. An Israeli missile killed two Hamas fighters
on a motorbike. A second rocket left three people dead, apparently all
civilians, near a school.
-
- The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, called
the Israeli offensive "state terror" and called for international
intervention.
-
- The Israeli military says its troops will focus on hunting
down Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, searching for rocket-manufacturing
workshops and demolishing houses which provide cover for the missiles to
be fired.
-
- But a dozen previous such operations have failed to stop
the rockets, including the army's five-week occupation of Beit Hanoun in
the summer.
-
- Hamas demonstrated the continued difficulty in ending
the attacks by firing another rocket into Sderot yesterday without causing
injury.
-
- Several cabinet ministers proposed putting additional
pressure on the civilian population.
-
- Israel's hardline defence minister, Binyamin Netanyahu,
told the security cabinet meeting that the army should smash Gaza's power
and water infrastructure to pressure ordinary Palestinians to oppose the
Hamas rocket attacks.
-
- Mr Sharon is under pressure from critics within his own
party who say his pledge to pull Jewish settlers out of the Gaza Strip
has emboldened Hamas and other resistance groups.
-
- Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Israeli parliament's
defence committee, said he intended to press Mr Sharon to launch an assault
to seize the entire Gaza Strip modelled on the army's reoccupation of the
West Bank two years ago in Operation Defensive Shield.
-
- "Israel should wage Operation Defensive Shield number
two in Gaza, take control of the entire strip in a widespread operation
over a period of a few weeks to gather information, destroy the terrorist
organisations' infrastructure and wipe out any slicks of arms as well as
the foundations for manufacturing Qassam rockets," he said.
-
- Mr Netanyahu said that the prime minister might have
to cancel the withdrawal plan if the attacks continued.
-
- But the escalation of the conflict in Gaza also fed pressure
to speed up the withdrawal of Jewish settlers and military bases.
-
- An opposition Labour MP, Ophir Pines-Paz, said that Mr
Sharon risked embroiling Israel in a drawn-out war of attrition in Gaza.
-
- "The pullout from Gaza must be determined and quick,
not according to the hesitant planning that invites an unending war of
attrition."
-
- Hamas has said it will cease attacks on Israeli communities
once the settlers go.
-
- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1318164,00.html
|
