The Israeli military stepped up its campaign to put an end to rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip by sending reinforcements to the north of the territory and carrying out an air strike in the area on Wednesday.
Three Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli helicopter strike near Jabaliya refugee camp, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
A military source confirmed that ”the IAF [Israeli Air Force] fired into open fields near Jabaliya”, the largest of the refugee camps in the territory.
Army reinforcements had been dispatched to the area shortly before the strike as part of an ongoing operation designed to end the firing of rockets toward southern Israel.
Palestinian sources said that two boys aged 10 and 12 had also been wounded by tank shelling around the entrance to Jabaliya, where many of the Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles had assembled.
Army chief of staff General Moshe Yaalon said the forces will remain in the area as long as the rocket attacks continue.
”As long as the Palestinians fire Qassam rocket towards Israeli areas, we will reinforce and enlarge our activities on the ground to not only prevent these attacks but also to strike the workshops and manufacturers,” he said.
Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has given the army carte blanche to put an end to the Qassam strikes — named after the military wing of the radical Islamist movement Hamas — after the killing of two Israelis in the town of Sderot in late June.
But so far, the five-week-old operation around Jabaliya and the nearby town of Beit Hanun has failed to end the strikes. Reports have said that some officers are in favour of pulling out of the area.
Military radio said that 60 Qassams had been fired from northern Gaza since the start of the offensive, 42 of which landed in Israeli territory.
Hamas fighters appeared in a video broadcast on Monday warning that they will continue to rain down rockets on Sderot unless the army pulls out of the area.
In southern Gaza, a Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces on Wednesday during an ongoing offensive in the town of Rafah.
Jihad el-Bess, a 20-year-old civilian, was killed by the Israelis during an operation to uncover tunnels used to smuggle in weapons from under the border with neighbouring Egypt, medical sources said.
The Israelis announced that they had discovered a 10m-deep tunnel concealed inside a house that was later demolished.
Israel is due to pull all its soldiers and settlers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of next year under the terms of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial disengagement plan.
The territory has become increasingly volatile in recent weeks with armed groups jockeying for power and exploiting the weakness of the Palestinian Authority.
The United States State Department issued an advisory overnight urging its citizens to leave Gaza immediately, citing the kidnapping late last month of an American citizen and threats against US interests.
Meanwhile, in Cairo a Hamas delegation was expected to discuss Egypt’s plan to provide security in the strip after the Israeli pull-out.
The delegation was being led by overall Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal who was expected to hold talks with Egyptian government officials later on Wednesday.
Cairo has offered to send up to 200 police officers to train a 30 000-strong Palestinian force to maintain law and order after the pull-out.
In other violence, a 29-year-old civilian was shot dead during exchanges of fire between an Israeli undercover unit and Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, security and medical sources said.
Awad Hashash was shot in the head when the exchanges broke out as the Israeli forces surrounded a house in the center of the main northern city of Nablus, the sources said.
The latest deaths brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to 4 215, including 3 218 Palestinians and 926 Israelis. — Sapa-AFP