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.
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.
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