GAZA (voa) – Israeli forces moved into the Gaza Strip Wednesday — following a day of bloody violence that included a Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli town.
Israeli tanks rumbled along a road leading to the northern Gaza villages of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. Witnesses say Israeli tanks also moved into eastern Gaza City and tore down Palestinian checkpoints.
News reports quote an Israeli army statement as saying the incursion is part of broad overnight operations against what it called the Palestinian terror network in Gaza.
Palestinian officials say at least three Palestinians were killed early Wednesday by tank fire in a village (Adassan) in southern Gaza.
In another pre-dawn incident in a coastal area of northern Gaza, Israeli navy gunboats fired at a Palestinian security force installation, injuring three Palestinian policemen. Following the shelling, the dead body of an unidentified Palestinian was found on the beach.
Tuesday’s violence included a Palestinian gunman’s attack on a Tel Aviv restaurant, a suicide bombing on an Israeli bus in central Israeli town of Afula, and a Palestinian rocket that wounded several people in the southern Israeli town of Sederot.
Israel’s security cabinet met Tuesday and decided to continue the stepped-up retaliation, including in Ramallah, where Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has his headquarters.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Tuesday to urge greater restraint in Israel’s military actions in Palestinian areas.
