Gaza City: A Palestinian youth was seriously wounded yesterday during an Israeli military operation in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials said.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers pushed early yesterday more than 250 metres into the coastal area, northeast of the town of Beit Hanoun where Palestinian militants frequently launch rockets toward Israel. Local residents said they heard sporadic firing in the area and saw the troops arrest a number of residents.
One Palestinian, 17, was seriously injured with a bullet to the stomach at his home in Beit Hanoun, health ministry official Moaiwaya Hassanein said. Local residents said the young man was not known as a militant.
Israeli troops were shot at, including with RPGs, and responded with fire during the 'routine operation against terror threats' in the area, the army said. Nine people were taken for questioning, the army said.
Islamic Jihad said its militants fired two RPGs toward Israeli tanks moving into the area. Israeli soldiers took up positions on the roofs of two houses in the town, Hamas security officials said.
Israel frequently carries out incursions in the Gaza Strip against militants who launch rockets. The projectiles are fired almost daily, wreak panic in southern Israel and occasionally cause casualties.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is under growing pressure at home to order a large-scale military operation in Gaza to stop the rockets. Olmert's Cabinet is slated to meet today to discuss other possible measures against Gaza.
TRAINING
Hamas security forces in extensive exercise
Hundreds of Hamas security forces trained for a possible Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, firing automatic rifles and shoulder-held grenade launchers in their first extensive exercise since they overran the coastal territory in June.
Hamas has said it is preparing for the possibility that Israel will launch a large military operation in the Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is under public pressure to respond to recent Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the government was considering several kinds of retaliation, not just military, in an apparent reference to recent calls for Israel to cut off the supply of electricity, fuel and water to the Gaza Strip in an effort to get the Hamas rulers there to stop the rocket fire.
"I think there are a series of actions other than military actions" that Israel can take, Livni told Army Radio. She did not elaborate but said the actions would not necessarily constitute 'collective punishment.' Israelis should not expect that the government will be able to totally stop the rocket fire, Livni said.
In the Hamas drill in the northern Gazan town of Beit Lahiya, Hamas forces in black ski masks and camouflage ran between fig trees and corn stalks, shooting toward a purported target. They took cover behind mounds of sand, hid in half-destroyed houses and in trenches.
At one point they fired at an empty house, causing a large explosion.
