Israeli tanks and army bulldozers entered a Palestinian-controlled area of the Gaza Strip near the Egyptian border, and demolished a Palestinian police station, Palestinian officials said, cited by The Associated Press.
Israel, said the AP, confirmed a brief "pinpoint operation" to demolish a Palestinian police station and said it was over.
The incursion into an area near Gaza International Airport, outside the Palestinian town of Rafah, came a day after Israeli troops withdrew from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza on Tuesday night, following pressure from the US.
An Israeli army spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the operation confirmed that two bulldozers, a tank, and another armored vehicle had entered Palestinian territory to demolish what had been the source of gunfire earlier in the day.
Israel's Army radio said that six mortar shells were fired in the north and south of the Gaza Strip without claiming any victims or causing damage.
Previous attacks have triggered heavy ripostes by Israel in the escalating wave of violence in the region.
The pullout after the reoccupation, which triggered angry reactions throughout the Arab world, came as a relief.
The international community had feared it would cause further escalation in Middle East violence that has already claimed more than 480 lives in less than seven months.
Washington expressed pleasure at Israel's withdrawal, but US officials warned the Jewish state not to "overreact" again to Palestinian attacks.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that "the hostilities last night in Gaza were precipitated by the provocative Palestinian mortar attacks on Israel. The Israeli response was excessive and disproportionate."
The pullout came even though the commander of the army's Gaza division, General Yair Naveh, had said the troops could remain in the area for "several months."
The army on Wednesday reprimanded Naveh, saying he was not speaking within his authority.
Earlier, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had led a string of virulent Arab condemnations of Israel's incursion, saying "this policy will lead to nothing, it will have terrible repercussions and, if they believe they are going to halt the violence this way, the violence will increase everywhere."
ISRAELI SECURITY CABINET MEETS FOLLOWING SUDDEN PULLOUT OF GAZA
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened Tuesday a meeting of his security cabinet to review the pullout of Israeli troops from Beit Hanoun, said Israel Radio.
The report said several of the 13 security cabinet members demanded an explanation of why they had not been consulted on the decision Monday night to send troops in to occupy territories in the Gaza Strip under autonomous Palestinian control.
Those same ministers also complained about the decision to withdraw those troops Tuesday night after a harsh rebuke from US Secretary of State Colin Powell, although Israel has denied any connection between its retreat and disapproval from the US government.
According to the radio report, senior military officers said that Ben Eliezer lied when he claimed that he told them the occupation would last only until night.
They said that when he visited the south region Tuesday noon, he did not say even one word on the expected withdrawal.
But the defense minister told reporters that "Israel had no intention of occupying the Gaza Strip."
Meanwhile, the radio added that Sharon accused Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, of not conveying his messages regarding the expected withdrawal on time and thus, the officers in the field were surprised to get the order to evacuate Tuesday night.
Israel had denied that it pulled out from Beit Hanoun under a US pressure, but some Israeli internet sites reported that Israeli officials gave withdrawal orders following a US criticism of Naveh's remarks, saying that "the Israeli forces will stay in Beit Hanon as long as it takes...days, week, or even months."
Due to the US pressure, Sharon, after consolations with Ben Eliezer and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres decided to give the withdrawal order immediately, said the report.
TWO ISRAELIS INJURED WEDNESDAY
A Jewish settler sustained minor wounds Tuesday in a stoning incident on the Houssan bypass road south of Jerusalem, reported The Jerusalem Post.
The second is a farmer from kibbutz neat Oz inside the Green Line. Army Radio said that he was shot in the face from Palestinian snipers in Gaza when he was working in his farm at noon.
He was rushed to hospital.
Elsewhere, Israeli soldiers dispersed stonethrowing students at a school in the northern West Bank village of Hawara near Nablus, said the Post, adding that the youths were targeting Israeli vehicles traveling on a nearby road.
Also in Nablus, a roadside bomb blew up on the road connecting the Jewish settlements of Homesh and Shavei Shomron, the paper said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Overnight, eight Palestinians were wounded by Israeli tankfire in Hebron, reported AFP.
Israeli tanks fired heavily at the Palestinian neighborhoods in the divided city after Israeli soldiers came under fire from the Palestinian side.
Among the wounded were four women who were hit by shrapnel fragments in their homes, the Palestinian police said, cited by the agency - Albawaba.com
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