Israel moves back into Gaza
16/07/2006 08:34  - (SA)  

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Gaza - Israeli forces clashed with Palestinian gunmen in Gaza on Sunday, as tanks moved back into the north of the Strip in an offensive that has continued even as fighting with Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas opened a second front.

Israel says the Gaza offensive is aimed at recovering a captured soldier and stopping armed groups from firing makeshift rockets into the country.

The offensive has piled pressure on the Palestinian government, led by Hamas, which has proposed a prisoner swap for an Israeli corporal.

Israeli tanks and armoured personnel carriers, backed by helicopters firing machine guns, moved into farmland near Beit Hanoun, an area often used by militants for launching rockets, on Saturday.

Palestinian gunmen blew up hidden bombs and fired anti-tank grenades at the approach.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli aircraft fired three missiles, wounding four people, including an 11-year-old boy.

"There is an army activity in Beit Hanoun. There has been deterrent fire," said one Israeli military source.

85 people killed

Israeli troops had pulled out of the northern Gaza Strip a week earlier, after a major raid into the territory. Israel abandoned the territory in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.

Two Palestinians were killed in strikes on Saturday.

The Israeli army attacked the economy ministry on Saturday, striking at the Hamas administration.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for the fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a raid from Gaza on June 25.

Israel has said it will not discuss a prisoner exchange.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed 85 people, about half of them Palestinian gunmen.

At the same time, Israel has been waging an offensive aimed at crippling Hizbollah, after the group captured two soldiers in an attack on Israel.

Strikes on that front has killed eight others and rockets have rained on the north of the Jewish state.

At least 104 people, all but four of them civilians, have been killed in the Israeli assault on Lebanon.

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