Dec 11, 2007 9:20 | Updated Dec 11, 2007 18:02
Gaza: 8 Palestinians killed in IDF op
Eight Palestinian gunmen were killed and at least 10 wounded on Tuesday as
IDF tanks and bulldozers backed by attack aircraft moved into the southern Gaza Strip in the biggest operation in the territory since Islamic Hamas forces wrested control in June. Fierce clashes erupted between IDF troops and gunmen who fired rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells at the soldiers.
Terrorists carrying land mines and other weapons dodged among houses in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis and maneuvered behind the tanks to fire at troops. Others took cover behind trees, or covered themselves in leaves to camouflage themselves in open farmlands in the area of the fighting.
Tanks and bulldozers were about 1.5 kilometers deep inside southern Gaza, on the main road between the towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah, and deployed over a 4-kilometer-long stretch of territory.
Earlier, an RPG anti-tank missile was fired at a tank, lightly wounding four soldiers.
Soldiers took over the rooftops of several homes and arrested about 60 people in house-to-house arrest raids, residents said.
Troops also demolished a gas station, Palestinians reported.
The army said that this was a routine operation "against the terror infrastructure," and not indicative of a larger operation. Gaza terrorists routinely fire Kassam rockets and mortar shells at Israeli border communities, and smuggle in weapons from Egypt.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the operation had achieved "very important results" in the fight against the manufacture and firing of Kassam rockets and mortar shells.
Speaking during a visit to a Navy base in Haifa, Barak added that IDF troops had been operating in Gaza every night to allow Israelis to celebrate the Hanukka festival in peace.
Hamas called on the Palestinian Authority to cancel the following day's peace talks with Israel in response to the IDF operation.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza said that it would be an "embarrassment" for Palestinian representative to shake the Israelis' "blood-stained" hands, Israel Radio reported.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh also condemned the IDF operation, calling it a "despicable crime" that cast doubts over Israel's desire to see peace negotiations succeed.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847308155&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull