Israel on Friday shelled the Palestinian-controlled village of Beit Lahia in north Gaza, wounding at least two civilians, sources on both sides told Reuters.
Palestinian police initially reported that three surface-to-surface missiles were fired, but later said the Israeli army used tank shells.
The army said it fired the tank shells after Palestinians launched several mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, with no injuries reported.
Police said one shell hit a Palestinian house but did not explode. The house was near a Palestinian police post. Another shell hit a stone-cutting factory and a third landed in a lot under construction.
PALESTINIAN KID KILLED IN ANOTHER DAY OF RAGE
A Palestinian boy was killed in clashes with the Israeli occupation forces at Mintar (Carni) crossing pint between the Gaza Strip and Israel, said Al Jazeera satellite channel.
Meanwhile, four Palestinians were injured on Friday, declared as a day of rage, in clashes that erupted in Beireh and Tulkarem in the West Bank.
Earlier, Israeli bulldozers and tanks firing shells moved into a Palestinian-controlled city in the Gaza Strip on Friday after a Palestinian grenade attack which the army said wounded two soldiers, reported Reuters.
Palestinian security officials said the vehicles destroyed a police post and three houses up to 800 meters (yards) inside Deir Al Balah before they pulled back. The tanks fired a few shells and blocked a main east-west road to split the strip in two, they said.
However, in a statement to Abu Dhabi TV Friday morning, the head of Palestinian military intelligence, Moussa Arafat, did not confirm the reported incursion, but stressed that the Israelis blocked roads in the area barring people's movement.
The army said earlier that Palestinians had hurled two or three grenades at an army post, wounding the soldiers, close to the Gush Katif Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza, said the agency.
A caller to Reuters claimed responsibility for the grenade attack on an army base in the name of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Iman Hejjo Unit, a reference to a four-month-old baby girl killed by Israeli fire during an attack this week.
ISRAELI NAVY BOMBARDS GAZA, SHARON VOWS MORE ATTACKS ON PALESTINIANS
Israeli war ships bombarded the city of Gaza Friday morning in a move that followed an Israeli missile attack on the city that injured at least 13 Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed there would be no let-up until there was an "end to terror."
No injuries from the sea attack were reported, said Al Jazeera satellite channel.
Referring to the strikes on Palestinian targets, Sharon told reporters: "This is part of the campaign that is being waged and this campaign will be conducted until there is a complete restoration of security. Not a reduction of terror, but an end to terror," the hawkish leader was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The missile strikes were in retaliation for a roadside bomb that killed two migrant Romanian laborers repairing an Israeli border fence at Kissufim crossing point in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, in a statement faxed to Reuters, claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Another group, Palestinian Hizbollah, also said it was behind the killings.
Smoke rose from a Palestinian security compound known as Saraya, which was hit by three surface-to-surface missiles, in the heart of Gaza City.
Two missiles punched holes in the offices of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fateh faction near the beach, causing balconies to crumble and extensive damage to two of the building's four floors.
But according to the Jerusalem Post, the Israelis fired at least four surface-to-surface missiles at the main headquarters of the Fateh Tanzim and the Palestinian National Security base in the center of Gaza City; it said the number of wounded reportedly reached 25 Palestinians, five of them seriously hurt.
The paper quoted reports as saying that an office in one of the buildings on the base was being used to manufacture mortars.
But the attack seemed to make no difference as far as the Palestinian public's attitude.
"We are not afraid of death," chanted a crowd outside the security compound, which is surrounded by residential buildings, after the missile strike, reported Reuters.
Ten surrounding homes were also damaged, said the Palestinians.
The site contains offices of the Palestinian Public Security, Military Intelligence and General Intelligence arms. Witnesses said only a one-storey building housing a research unit was hit.
"This is a new dangerous escalation. We warn the Israeli government against the continuation of its aggression against the Palestinians. This escalation will destabilize the entire region," senior Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.
According to the paper, Palestinian sources reported that the Israeli army also targeted the Gaza headquarters of Palestinian Police Chief Ghazi Jabali, near the Islamic University. The Fateh headquarters in the Rimal neighborhood is located near Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's office and the security base was where Meretz MKs and human rights activists met with Abdel Razeq Majaideh, head of the Palestinian security forces in Gaza, hours before the IDF attack.
Meanwhile, the town of Rafah in the strip was shelled by Israeli tanks, reported the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Ten were injured in the attack, while three security people were hurt in a simultaneous raid on Qarara, near Khan Younis.
In the same context, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Gaza reported that an Israeli soldier was wounded by Palestinian sniper fire near the border with Egypt.
He added that Fateh's dismantled Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the attack.
SETTLERS' DOGS ATTACK, KILL PALESTINIAN
A Palestinian, Kifah Zurub, died Thursday evening of injuries he sustained Wednesday when Jewish settlers loosed their dogs on him in Mawassi near Khan Younis. The Israeli forces barred the ambulance from rushing the teenager to the hospital, said Wafa on Friday.
Another Palestinian died on Thursday, two days after he had a heart attack during the Israeli shelling of Khan Younis, added the agency.
ISRAEL’S MILITARY NEEDS ADDITIONAL $725M ‘TO FIGHT INTIFADA’
Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom said Friday in London that the Defense Ministry is seeking an additional NIS 3 billion ($724,5) in this year's budget due to the demands of fighting the Intifada, Israel Radio reported, cited by The Jerusalem Post.
The ministry will not get all of its request, Shalom told reporters, since it has already received a budget supplement of some NIS 900 million.
Any differences of opinion on the matter between the Treasury and the Defense Ministry will be decided by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Shalom.
ISRAELIS WOULD TRADE SETTLEMENT FREEZE FOR CEASEFIRE
A majority of Israelis would back a freeze of Jewish settlement construction on occupied land in return for a ceasefire with the Palestinians, according to an opinion poll published on Friday, cited by Reuters.
A Gallup Poll survey of 850 Israelis for the daily newspaper Maariv showed 55 percent supported such a proposal while 39 percent opposed it and six percent had no opinion. The survey had a four percent margin of error.
Some 200,000 Jews live in the settlements scattered among 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which have been under Israel's military occupation since the 1967 Middle East war.
Settlements built on occupied land are illegal under international law. Under previous negotiations, the future of the Jewish settlements was to be determined by a final peace treaty -- Albawaba.com
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