Israeli commandos struck inside Gaza early yesterday, killing four members of a Palestinian rocket squad in the first ground incursion since Israel pulled out of the coastal strip nearly a year ago.
The operation marked a change in army tactics since last September's pullout and signaled a further escalation in cross-border fighting.
Before dawn, Israeli commandos sneaked about 3km into northern Gaza, to the area of the former Jewish settlement of Dugit. Troops set up an ambush and opened fire when a rocket squad from the militant Islamic Jihad group reached the area, said Amos Harel, the military affairs reporter for the Haaretz daily.
PHOTO: AFP
The military would not comment on whether troops had been lying in wait for the militants.
A gunbattle erupted, and four Islamic Jihad members were killed. Israeli helicopter gunships joined the battle, firing missiles, and Palestinian security officials said Israeli navy divers were also part of the operation. After five hours of fighting, troops left Gaza before daybreak.
The army said that in recent months, troops had gone a few meters into Gaza on occasion to clear mines near the Gaza-Israel border fence, but that yesterday marked the first ground operation against rocket squads.
Palestinian militants have fired hundreds of homemade rockets at Israeli border communities in more than five years of fighting. The rockets are crude and inaccurate, but the army has been unable to stop the firing.
Since the Gaza pullout, army officials have repeatedly said that the only way to halt the fire is to re-enter Gaza, something Israel has been reluctant to do. The army said after yesterday's incursion that it would use all means to defend Israeli citizens against Palestinian rocket fire.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops killed three militants in separate arrest raids. Two of those killed were from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, and one from Islamic Jihad.
In other developments, Israeli Interior Minister Ronnie Bar-On issued an ultimatum to three Hamas legislators and a Hamas Cabinet minister who live in Jerusalem. The four senior Hamas members were told they must either quit their posts or face expulsion to the West Bank within 30 days.
Legislator Mohammed Abu Teir said he and his colleagues would fight the decision in Israel's Supreme Court.
"How can Israel call itself a democracy and do this?" Abu Teir, speaking in Hebrew, told Israel Radio yesterday. "I am going to court."
Expelling Palestinians from Jerusalem on political grounds is unprecedented. It reflects the new situation caused by the Hamas victory in January parliamentary elections and its formation of a government in March.
Israel has declared the Hamas regime a "hostile entity" and is leading a drive to cut off all funding to the Palestinian Authority, which has led to widespread hardships. Israel, the US and the EU list Hamas -- which is officially sworn to Israel's destruction -- as a terrorist organization.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of