Israeli aircraft bombed targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after an attempt by Palestinian gunmen to attack an Israeli watchtower and kidnap soldiers.
On Saturday afternoon, four gunmen from Islamic Jihad and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade drove a jeep through fence that encloses the Gaza Strip and attacked a tower, only to find it was unmanned. The men were reported to have marked the car with the letters TV to suggest that they were journalists.
Israeli forces closed in on the four but three escaped on foot after their car was shot at. The soldiers spent two hours searching the area around Kissufim. The fourth man shot a sniffer dog after it discovered him hiding in a culvert. The gunman, a 19-year-old from Gaza City, was subsequently shot dead.
Abu Ahmed, a spokesperson for Islamic Jihad, said the raiders meant to snatch a soldier but the attempt was foiled by Israeli helicopter gunships. “The aim of the operation was to withdraw with the soldier in captivity,” he said. “But the participation of Israeli helicopters prevented that.”
He denied that the group had disguised the jeep with TV stickers, claiming that the Israeli army had added them after the attack. Palestinian journalists condemned the use of TV stickers by the militants.
The last time gunmen entered Israel, they killed two soldiers and abducted Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier. The attack led to five months of reprisals by Israel, which left hundreds of Palestinians dead. Corporal Shalit remains captive in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli air force responded on Sunday by bombing what it said was a building used by Islamic Jihad officials, and an arms workshop run by the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade. Sources in Gaza said the targets were a library, a blacksmith’s workshop and also shops in Gaza City.
The failed attack prompted renewed discussion in Israel of a wider invasion of the Gaza Strip in an attempt to stop attacks by Qassam home-made rockets and mortars which continued sporadically on Sunday. Israel’s chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, reportedly decided that a limited invasion of Gaza was necessary, but the national security council maintained its position that Israel should not invade.
Before the weekly Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, told reporters that Israeli forces would continue to operate in the Gaza Strip.
“Our operations in the Gaza sector will continue as long as the Qassam fire and terror attempts continue,” he said.
The bombings came amid a fresh outbreak of factional fighting between Fatah and Hamas which left at least two dead and dozens injured. Early this morning, gunmen fired on the house of Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Prime Minister, from Hamas. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
It was the first time in a month of infighting that Haniyeh had been an apparent target. An estimated 600 Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting in the past six months. – Guardian Unlimited Â