Israeli troops took back parts of the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip yesterday after a withering hail of fire from land, sea and air killed one person, wounded 30 and left life in the area in disarray.
In the latest sign of right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "get tough" policy, the 45km long Gaza Strip was effectively carved into three separate areas with its main coastal road cut by Israeli checkpoints.
Mortar bomb attacks
The Israeli army said Sharon had ordered the assaults after five mortar bombs fired from the strip slammed into the southern Israeli town of Sderot, 5km away. The military wing of the Muslim militant group Hamas said it had fired them.
The mortar rounds landed deeper in Israel than any since the start of a Palestinian uprising for independence last September, falling just down the road from Sharon's Negev Desert ranch.
Some residents were forced into using donkeys and making long detours to get to destinations in the strip, where 1.2 million Palestinians live in an area that at some points is just 4km wide.
Gaza City's main police headquarters and two elite Force 17 security unit posts were among at least seven main targets in an attack that lasted for hours. An Israeli army spokesman declined to say how long troops would remain in the strip.
Palestinian sources said a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman had been killed in the Israeli reprisal.
Apart from the wounded, hospitals reported that relatives had brought dozens of people in for help from shock after they endured six hours of night bombardment that residents said was the worst since the start of violence seven months ago.
The Gaza attacks, involving tanks, helicopter gunships, missiles, ships and bulldozers, began less than 24 hours after Israel's first bombing raid in five years on a Syrian target in Lebanon.
Arab nations respond
Arab nations blasted Israel's security offensive and western nations called for restraint on all sides.
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said Israel was acting in a "despicable" way and urged a firm stance against what it called Israel's warmongering.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency that the attack demonstrated that Israel had moved away from the language of peace and adopted one of war and destruction.
In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of children, men, women, students and workers turned to beach travel in donkey carts to take them to points where they could pick up taxis and buses.
Israel has tanks on main roads, all of which are closed.
An Israeli bulldozer dug a trench in the coastal road and piled it with stones to prevent travel.
"These escalatory Israeli measures are not intended to put an end to the Intifada [uprising], but are aimed at humiliating us and make us submit to Israel's will," Iyad Ismail, 29, a bank employee, said.
"It's clear that Israel has expanded the sphere of war with the Palestinians. It has carried out a new and dangerous step by reoccupying Palestinian areas," Palestinian Cabinet minister Hassan Asfour said.
Witnesses said the army had thrust into Palestinian-ruled Beit Hanoun near the Erez crossing to Israel and at several other points. Blockades kept Palestinians from entering an area of homes and orchards.
The army said it had taken over the land because it was being used for actions against Israel and would leave once violence ended.
Israel transferred most of the Gaza Strip to Palestinian rule in 1994 at the start of seven years of peacemaking, which deadlocked before the latest spate of violence began.
"It is high time Arab leaders reconsidered their ways of how to confront and how to put an end to this aggression ... Will they wake up after all the Palestinian land is reoccupied and after Israel enters all Arab capitals?" Palestinian minister Asfour said. "We call on the Arab people to go down to the streets in their countries and wake up their leaders."
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