Israeli tanks firing machineguns thrust into Gaza on yesterday, killing one Palestinian militant in a retaliatory raid for the first deadly cross-border rocket strike from the strip that Israel plans to abandon.
Troops besieged Beit Hanoun, barely 2km from the Israeli town of Sderot, where makeshift Qassam missiles fired by Hamas Islamic militants killed a three-year-old-boy outside a kindergarten and a 49-year-old man on Monday.
Similar rockets wounded two people inside Israel yesterday, intensifying a surge of violence that has complicated Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull Jewish settlers out of the occupied Gaza Strip next year.
PHOTO: EPA
The casualties have fuelled anxiety in the Jewish state that leaving Gaza would not stop it being used as a base for attacks -- one of the main arguments of the pullout plan's opponents.
Israeli troops and tanks opened fire as they cut off roads into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a regular launching ground for rockets, in a pre-dawn attack.
They shot dead a top Hamas commander.
PHOTO: AP
Israeli political sources said it could be a prolonged raid into Beit Hanoun, where the rubble of demolished homes and ground scraped clear by bulldozers mark previous attempts by Israel to stop rocket launches.
``After this takeover, the ability to launch Qassams will be dimin-ished,'' Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said during a tour of an army base in northern Israel.
``We will carry out further operations to damage the infrastructure for manufacturing the rockets,'' he added. His comments were reported on the Web site of the Haaretz daily.
Residents said the destruction, which turned large areas into wasteland, was wanton.
"I oppose those who are firing rockets, and I don't like violence at all," said Jaber Saeda, a 42-year-old farmer who said his greenhouses had been destroyed by Israel last year.
"But how can I convince my children and myself that the Israelis are serious about peace when I see them uprooting trees and destroying houses and killing our children? They have left no space for trust between us and them," he said.
Both sides are determined to bloody each other ahead of a Gaza pullout. Militants want to claim victory, while the army aims to puncture Palestinian boasts and prevent Gaza being used to stage attacks into Israel.
Sharon has emphasized that he will not be stopped in his plan, popular with most Israelis and backed by Washington, to remove 7,500 Jewish settlers who live among more than 1.3 million Palestinians in Gaza.
But violence could complicate the process, opposed by some right-wingers who argue that it would embolden militants and give them a base to strike into Israel.
Sharon had ordered a heavy response after the rocket strike on Sderot and the blowing up of an army post on Sunday, killing one soldier, political sources said.
"Sharon was willing to overlook Sunday's attack ... But a fatal rocket attack on an Israeli city is a different matter, especially during the sensitive period prior to implementation of his disengagement plan," said Aluf Benn of Haaretz.
Helicopters attacked Gaza overnight, hitting a pro-Hamas journal described as a "terrorist communication center" by the army. Another airstrike destroyed a metal foundry, which the army said was used to make weapons.
But Hamas said it fired three more Qassam rockets into Israel yesterday. Two Israelis were wounded, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, an Israeli man was found shot dead, military sources said.
Israeli media said he was a businessman who had ignored army warnings not to travel to the area.
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