Armored vehicles amassed on Gaza's border yesterday after Israel's security Cabinet approved a large-scale military operation -- codenamed "Days of Penitence" -- to stop Palestinian rocket fire.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz ordered troops to "exact a price" from the militants, security officials said, after a Hamas rocket killed two children, ages 2 and 4, in an Israeli border town.
The Cabinet approved the offensive late Thursday, at the end of a day of heavy fighting between troops and Palestinian gunmen in the Jebaliya refugee camp, the Palestinians' largest and most densely populated.
With 28 Palestinians killed and 139 wounded Thursday, most of them in Jebaliya, it was the highest single-day toll in fighting in 30 months.
In bloodshed elsewhere in Gaza that day, two Israeli soldiers and a settler were killed by Palestinian fire.
Israeli officials said the operation would be open-ended.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told the security Cabinet that he was determined to stop the rocket fire, but stopped short of calling up reserves.
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