Palestinian sources reported that three members of the Palestinian security forces were killed early Wednesday in Gaza Strip during fire exchanges with Israeli troops. A fourth Palestinian civilian was shot dead near his house in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip, Gazan sources added.
Earlier it was reported that Israeli tanks and troops moved into Palestinian territory in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, taking control of two towns and cutting off a refugee camp.
Israel said this new incursion followed Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza and an Israeli warning of wider military operations in response.
Israeli tanks rolled into Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, occupying the eastern half of the town, Palestinian security sources told AFP. Several tanks entered more than one kilometer into the town, firing shells and heavy machine guns, the sources said.
Witnesses said the tanks cordoned off a one square kilometer residential and farmland section of the town, which was not densely populated, and that army bulldozers and jeeps followed closely behind the tanks.
"This reoccupation is part of the escalation in Israeli aggression. There have been no shootings or attacks in the last several days from Deir el-Balah," a senior Palestinian security official told AFP.
At around 1 AM (2300 GMT) Israeli troops entered Palestinian territory and surrounded Beit Lahiya, cutting the road to the nearby Jebalya refugee camp next to Gaza City, witnesses added.
Also, Israeli tanks moved into the town of Beit Hanoun and took up positions around the partially destroyed house of Salah Shehadeh, a prominent Hamas activists said to be high on the Israeli wanted list, Palestinians said. Israeli troops demolished part of the house in an earlier incursion.
The Israelis conducted searches in the towns and prevented international agencies from sending officials to observe the operation, Palestinian security officials said.
Witnesses said bulldozers were in the convoys, indicating that the Israelis planned to tear down structures.
For his part, Public Security chief in Gaza, Maj. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaidie, called on the people to stand up to the "latest Israeli occupation." He told Wafa that "Israeli tanks, planes and helicopters will not make us kneel and will not bring peace to them."
Hamas
Earlier Tuesday, Hamas said it reserved the right to fire new home-made Qassam-2 rockets at Israeli cities, in order to counter Israeli air strikes on Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas spokesman, said that while the Qassam-2 missile was a "primitive weapon" that could not be compared to Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships, it would achieve a balance with the "Israeli terror."
Zahar said the rockets, which are capable of hitting Israeli cities if fired from the West Bank, could be used against all Israeli targets, including cities in Israel and settlements in the territories.
Asked if Hamas would use the rockets against Israeli cities as well as settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, he said: "Land occupied in 1948 [when the State of Israel was established] is a colony and land occupied in 1967 is another colony. No difference." (Albawaba.com)
