Israel pressed on with its air assault on Gaza on Friday in a bid to retrieve a soldier abducted nearly three weeks ago and stop rocket attacks but troops withdrew from the centre of the territory.
The continued offensive came as the United States vetoed a United Nations resolution calling on Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza, as the Security Council prepared for an emergency debate on escalating violence in Lebanon.
The air force carried out at least two overnight raids, while ground artillery and naval gunboats pounded the Palestinian territory north and south, as part of campaign to secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit.
One raid struck the house of an MP for the governing Palestinian movement Hamas, whose administration has been directly targeted in the offensive, in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, and a bridge in central part of the territory.
The army confirmed the attack on the bridge and an aerial attack on a Hamas office in Gaza City, and said artillery from ground and naval gunboats had bombarded the northern and southern parts of the territory.
At least 76 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have now been killed since Israel stepped up a ground assault on Gaza July 5 in a bid to retrieve Shalit, snatched in a commando raid on June 25, and stop Palestinian rocket attacks.
Four rockets fired from Gaza exploded in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Friday but caused no damage or any casualties, the military said.
The latest Palestinian to die was killed late on Thursday when a tank fired a shell at a vehicle moving towards Israeli forces stationed in the Qarara in the southern Gaza Strip.
But tanks and armoured jeeps positioned on a north-south road in the central Gaza Strip near the Deir al-Balah refugee camp and the town of Khan Yunis withdrew from the area Friday, witnesses and the army said.
”I can confirm that they have withdrawn from the central Gaza Strip. They’ve completed their mission there,” an army spokesperson said.
She said the only place where Israeli ground forces remain in the territory is in Dahaniya, in the south, near Gaza’s former international airport that was destroyed by the army after the second Palestinian uprising erupted.
The move came after Israel’s chief ally the United States vetoed a UN resolution urging Israel to halt military operations in Gaza, condemning the assault and calling for the immediate withdrawal from troops.
US Ambassador John Bolton said the veto was because of the ”unbalanced” nature of the draft text which he argued laid a disproportionate amount of blame on Israel for the current crisis in the region. The text had also condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and Shalit’s abduction.
What has become the worst Israeli-Palestinian crisis in months was sparked when the 19-year-old was snatched by Palestinian militants, including members of the armed wing of Hamas, on the Gaza border.
Faced with twin Israeli offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, following Wednesday’s abduction of two soldiers by Hezbollah, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas issued a stark warning against the eruption of ”regional war”.
Shalit’s captors have, like Hezbollah, demanded the release of prisoners in exchange for their hostage.
But Israel has refused any talks with the Islamist movement that advocates the destruction of the Jewish state, or engage in a prisoner swap, vowing the assault will continue ”in places, in time, in measures” at its convenience.
Aid groups have expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1,4-million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government. – AFP
