Tanks, troops and bulldozers reoccupied a Gaza town on Tuesday in a bid to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, after the crudely made missiles claimed their first Israeli victims, a man and a three-year-old boy.
Hamas responded by firing more of the unguided rockets as the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, visited Sderot, the scene of Monday’s killing of the boy. One man was wounded in Tuesday’s assault by two further waves of six missiles, which are known as Qassams.
”We are determined to take broad action to ensure what happened will not be repeated — not now, before we have moved out of the Gaza Strip, and not after we leave,” Sharon said.
Hours earlier, Israeli forces moved into Beit Hanoun, the Gaza town nearest to Sderot, under cover of machine-gun fire. While some Palestinian families fled, others were bracing themselves for a long siege.
Armoured bulldozers piled earth and rubble across roads, sealing Beit Hanoun off from the rest of the Gaza Strip, while Apache helicopters patrolled overhead.
Two Palestinians were killed, including a man whom the Israelis described as a Hamas commander.
”We knew the tanks would come, so we were ready to leave when we heard them,” said Mustafa al-Mwasi, a 57-year-old Palestinian father of three, as he fled Beit Hanoun.
”When the Israelis came before, they have kept us prisoner in our own homes for weeks and destroyed houses, and it’s just too much for the children. They get so scared.”
A year ago, the army seized Beit Hanoun for six weeks in response to missile attacks. The military destroyed dozens of homes, ripped up roads and infrastructure, and bulldozed hundreds of olive trees before it pulled out.
Israel’s defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said the army intended to take control of areas in Gaza from which the missiles could reach Israeli towns. More than 300 such missiles have been fired during this intifada.
”We will carry out further operations to damage the infrastructure for manufacturing the rockets and continue operations necessary to prevent the carrying out of the shootings,” he said.
His claim was promptly undermined by two further waves of missiles against Sderot, a kibbutz and the Israeli community Shaar Hanegev.
Sharon’s security cabinet is split on how far to press the response in Gaza this time. The head of the Shin Bet intelligence service, Avi Dichter, reportedly backs a large-scale operation, similar to the reoccupation of West Bank cities two years ago. Dichter said the West Bank raids had greatly reduced suicide bombings and other attacks.
The director of the national security council, General Giora Eiland, who is also drawing up plans for the removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, said a ”balance of terror” should be established in which a price was placed on the deaths of Israelis.
The deputy defence minister, Ze’ev Boim, said the army would show restraint: ”We can very easily wipe out Beit Hanoun from the air, and thus resolve the problem. We are putting restraints on ourselves in this war. Thus I cannot say that we are going to launch an operation to destroy things there. We will continue with the operations we have begun.” – Guardian Unlimited Â