'Israel will pay a high price'
2009-01-03 22:14
London - A senior Hamas official said on Saturday that Hamas fighters had killed a number of Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza, Reuters reported.
Mohammad Nazzal, who is based in Damascus, reported the deaths on Dubai-based al-Arabiya television. He gave no exact figures.
AFP earlier reported the Islamist group's armed wing vowing that Israel would pay a "high price" for the ground operation it launched on Saturday on the Islamic movement's Gaza Strip stronghold.
"The enemy will pay a high price for its operation in northern Gaza Strip," said a statement from Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades read out on the movement's al-Aqsa television station.
Israel sent a "large number" of ground troops into the Gaza Strip on Saturday to take over rocket launching sites in the Hamas-run territory, officials said in Jerusalem on Saturday.
"A short while ago IDF forces began to implement the second stage of Operation Cast Lead. Land forces have begun to manoeuvre within the Gaza Strip," said an army statement.
In a statement, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Israel would take over sites from where militants have fired rockets into the Jewish state and deal a "hard blow" to the Islamists.
"The Israel Defence Forces (army) is planning to take over rocket launching areas from where rockets have been fired over the past weeks and months," the statement said.
The goals of the operation include "dealing a hard blow to the Hamas terror infrastructure and changing the security reality in the south over a long period of time," it said.
"Large numbers of forces are taking part in this stage of the operation including infantry, tanks, engineering forces, artillery and intelligence with the support of the Israel air force, Israel navy, and other security agencies," the army said.
"The objective of this stage is to destroy the terrorist infrastructure of Hamas in the area of operation, while taking control of some of the rocket launching areas used by the Hamas, in order to greatly reduce the quantity of rockets fired at Israel and Israeli civilians," it said.
"Anyone who hides a terrorist or weapons in his house is considered a terrorist," said an army statement released after troops moved into Gaza.
"The IDF spokesperson wishes to reiterate that the residents of Gaza are not the target of the operation.
"Those who use civilians, the elderly, women and children as 'human shields' are responsible for any and all injury to the civilian population," the statement said.
- AFP