The Israeli army entered southern Gaza on Wednesday after threatening a major offensive to try to secure the release of an Israeli soldier taken hostage by Palestinian militants.
Tanks and soldiers began taking up positions in two locations east of the town of Rafah under the cover of tank shells. Palestinians dug in behind walls and sand embankments, bracing for a major offensive.
An Israeli army spokesperson confirmed the troops had moved into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
A Hamas leader urged fighters to confront the Israeli soliders, Reuters reported. ”Fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist,” Nizar Rayan said in a radio message.
Israeli planes also attacked three bridges and the main Gaza power station, knocking out electricity in most of the coastal strip.
The Israeli military said that the object of the attacks on the bridges in Gaza was ”to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier”.
No casualties were reported in any of the attacks.
Israeli military officials said that the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, had approved a ”limited operation” for southern Gaza, aimed at ”terrorist infrastructure”.
The strikes came amid intensive diplomatic efforts in the Arab world and by the United Nations. The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, urged Israel to ”give diplomacy a chance”.
Trying to defuse building tensions, negotiators from Hamas said on Tuesday they had accepted a deal implicitly recognising Israel. But two Syrian-based Hamas leaders denied a final deal had been reached.
Israel said only freedom for the captive soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, could defuse the crisis, not a political agreement.
Shalit was abducted by Palestinian militants during a raid on an Israeli army post near Gaza on Sunday in which two Israeli soldiers and two militants were killed.
Israeli TV reported that international mediators involved in talks with the kidnappers had given up, saying negotiations were going nowhere. An Egyptian official said that talks with Hamas officials in Gaza were ”on hold” but insisted negotiations were still taking place with Hamas leaders in Syria.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired four rockets into southern Israel on Wednesday. The notoriously inaccurate rockets were fired from northern Gaza and fell into fields near the kibbutz of Karmiya.
According to the Israeli army, more than 150 such makeshift rockets have been fired towards Israel since an upsurge in cross-border violence following the deaths of eight Palestinians at a beach picnic on June 9. – Sapa-AP, Guardian Unlimited Â