Israeli forces strike at Palestinians
Israeli forces strike at Palestinians
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Wednesday, 28, Jun 2006 05:16
Israeli military forces have launched an air strike near Rafah against what they claim is a training base used by Hamas militants as ground forces continue to consolidate their positions in the Gaza Strip.
Artillery has been fired into Gaza City where large explosions have been heard, although the Israeli army has said the shells are being used for target practice rather than on live targets.
Since moving into the Gaza Strip during the night, Israeli armour and troops have steadily advanced from the Rafah crossing in the south as they search for the kidnapped Corporal Gilad Shalit whose abduction by Palestinian militants on Sunday morning precipitated today's crisis.
Launching what it calls Operation Summer Rains, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) says it "aims to disrupt Palestinian terrorist groups and to facilitate the return of Cpl Shalit to Israel as quickly and peacefully as possible".
Earlier today Israeli air forces destroyed a bridge in central Gaza in an attempt to prevent Cpl Shalid's captors from moving him around, while last night nuclear reactors were bombed, plunging the entire area into darkness – "to handicap and disrupt operations of the terrorist organisations connected, directly or indirectly, to the kidnapping", the IDF claimed.
Prime minister Ehud Olmert has warned that "extreme action" will be taken by his country's forces. Observers are suggesting that Israeli politics will allow a more relaxed attitude to civilian deaths given the lack of Israeli civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Prior to Israel's military offensive, Hamas had agreed to accept a document proposing a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine problem.
Hamas has authorised Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president and leader of the political group Fatah, to conduct negotiations with Israel, but continues to insist that it regards the Jewish state as an occupying power maintaining its status as being built on stolen Palestinian land.