Israeli tanks backed by helicopters stormed into Gaza City early Tuesday and battled Palestinian fighters in clashes that left nine Palestinians dead and 24 injured, hospital officials said.
The Israeli raid came less than 24 hours after Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly raised the possibility that an operation targeting Hamas could follow Israel's moves against Yasser Arafat. "Gaza serves as a center for Hamas," Sharon said, adding Israel would "strike Hamas and prevent its ability to act."
An Israeli official, according to AP, said the military is considering expelling the Hamas founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and a senior official in the movement, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, but that no final decision has been made. Rantisi warned Tuesday that "Gaza will be a grave to all Israeli soldiers."
The tanks penetrated about one kilometer into Gaza City. The soldiers also blew up a metal factory. The Israeli army confirmed that a military operation was under way in Gaza and said no soldiers had been injured.
Three of the victims were killed when tanks and helicopters opened fire simultaneously with machine guns on the the Shejaya neighbourhood of Gaza City. The three were named as Yassin Nasser, 53, an activist in Hamas movement, Jaber al-Kharazi, 20, a member of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, and Mohammed Kishkho, 45, a local leader of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Kishkho died of shrapnel wounds suffered from tank shell explosion.
Six other Palestinians, one of whom remain unidentified, were later killed by tank-shell fire on a street near their homes, the sources said.
According to AP, the incursion into the eastern Shejaya neighborhood of the city was an apparent attempt to enter the homes of several Palestinian activists killed by Israeli soldiers earlier this year, witnesses said.
Witnesses said Israeli forces demolished the home of Mohammed Farhat, a member of Hamas shot dead by Israel forces last March after he killed five Jewish students in a Gaza settlement.
Palestinians hit at least one of the 20 tanks used in the operation with explosives, and army bulldozers were attempting to push the tank out of the area, said witnesses.
Two helicopters and several bulldozers also took part in the operation, and the troops started carrying out house-to-house searches.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops detained five Palestinians on the army's wanted list, in the Ramallah and Jenin areas. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
