OMEN
06-28-2006, 07:43 AM
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TIME TO MOVE: Israeli soldiers sing songs as they prepare to enter the Gaza Strip in search of abducted 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit.
GAZA: Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
To the sound of heavy gunfire, armoured vehicles entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
First bulldozers to clear bombs, then tanks, crossed into the strip at Kerem Shalom in an operation that recalled frequent raids during a Palestinian uprising.
A leader of Hamas, the governing Palestinian Islamist group, exhorted fighters to confront the Israelis.
"Fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist," Nizar Rayan said in a radio message.
Israeli aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive, Corporal Gilad Shalit. A helicopter attack on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel had threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year after holding it since a 1967 war.
TEST FOR OLMERT
It is the biggest test yet for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He was elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory Palestinians would like as part of an independent state.
With tension growing on Tuesday, Hamas reached a political deal with the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, but rejected any suggestion the plan meant it recognised Israel or had dropped its vow to destroy it.
W O R L D N E W S S T O R Y
RELATED LINKS
» Israeli helicopters strike in Gaza
» Israeli forces mass near Gaza
» Tensions high over kidnapped soldier
» Have your say
» Subscribe to Archivestuff
TIME TO MOVE: Israeli soldiers sing songs as they prepare to enter the Gaza Strip in search of abducted 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit.
Reuters
VIEW VIDEO
Israeli forces push into Gaza Strip
28 June 2006
GAZA: Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
To the sound of heavy gunfire, armoured vehicles entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
First bulldozers to clear bombs, then tanks, crossed into the strip at Kerem Shalom in an operation that recalled frequent raids during a Palestinian uprising.
A leader of Hamas, the governing Palestinian Islamist group, exhorted fighters to confront the Israelis.
"Fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist," Nizar Rayan said in a radio message.
Israeli aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive, Corporal Gilad Shalit. A helicopter attack on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel had threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year after holding it since a 1967 war.
TEST FOR OLMERT
It is the biggest test yet for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He was elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory Palestinians would like as part of an independent state.
With tension growing on Tuesday, Hamas reached a political deal with the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, but rejected any suggestion the plan meant it recognised Israel or had dropped its vow to destroy it.
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Israel dismissed the manifesto, penned by Palestinians in its jails, as "double-speak" aimed at lifting a US-led aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority.
Preparing to confront the Israeli forces, Palestinian gunmen fanned out behind barricades and in foxholes. They blocked roads with piles of sand and planted improvised bombs.
A Palestinian militant group which said it had abducted a Jewish settler in the West Bank threatened to kill him in response to Israel's incursion.
Israeli police have not confirmed the kidnapping claim by the Popular Resistance Committee, but are investigating the disappearance of an 18-year-old settler.
Israeli troops have made brief incursions into Gaza in recent weeks, but nothing on the scale of Wednesday's operation.
"We are trying to make it clear that we will take the necessary steps to ensure his (Shalit's) safe return," said Israeli Captain Jacob Dallal. "Much still depends on the Palestinians."
Hoping to head off a major flare-up, Egypt has been trying to broker Shalit's release. So has France, as the 19-year-old conscript has French as well as Israeli citizenship.
But mediators said they were close to calling it quits before the Israeli troops moved into Gaza.
There has been little word on Shalit's fate. Hamas's armed wing offered to release details if Israel frees Palestinian minors and women held in its prisons, but Olmert said such a swap was not up for discussion.
The last time Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier was in 1994. He was killed during a rescue attempt.
Militant groups said Sunday's raid was in response to the killing of 14 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air strikes in Gaza against militants behind cross-border rocket attacks.
Hamas's armed wing this month called off a truce it had largely followed since the start of 2005.
Reuters
TIME TO MOVE: Israeli soldiers sing songs as they prepare to enter the Gaza Strip in search of abducted 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit.
GAZA: Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
To the sound of heavy gunfire, armoured vehicles entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
First bulldozers to clear bombs, then tanks, crossed into the strip at Kerem Shalom in an operation that recalled frequent raids during a Palestinian uprising.
A leader of Hamas, the governing Palestinian Islamist group, exhorted fighters to confront the Israelis.
"Fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist," Nizar Rayan said in a radio message.
Israeli aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive, Corporal Gilad Shalit. A helicopter attack on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel had threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year after holding it since a 1967 war.
TEST FOR OLMERT
It is the biggest test yet for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He was elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory Palestinians would like as part of an independent state.
With tension growing on Tuesday, Hamas reached a political deal with the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, but rejected any suggestion the plan meant it recognised Israel or had dropped its vow to destroy it.
W O R L D N E W S S T O R Y
RELATED LINKS
» Israeli helicopters strike in Gaza
» Israeli forces mass near Gaza
» Tensions high over kidnapped soldier
» Have your say
» Subscribe to Archivestuff
TIME TO MOVE: Israeli soldiers sing songs as they prepare to enter the Gaza Strip in search of abducted 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit.
Reuters
VIEW VIDEO
Israeli forces push into Gaza Strip
28 June 2006
GAZA: Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.
To the sound of heavy gunfire, armoured vehicles entered Gaza near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
First bulldozers to clear bombs, then tanks, crossed into the strip at Kerem Shalom in an operation that recalled frequent raids during a Palestinian uprising.
A leader of Hamas, the governing Palestinian Islamist group, exhorted fighters to confront the Israelis.
"Fight your enemies, who came to their deaths. Grab your rifles and resist," Nizar Rayan said in a radio message.
Israeli aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive, Corporal Gilad Shalit. A helicopter attack on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel had threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year after holding it since a 1967 war.
TEST FOR OLMERT
It is the biggest test yet for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
He was elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory Palestinians would like as part of an independent state.
With tension growing on Tuesday, Hamas reached a political deal with the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, but rejected any suggestion the plan meant it recognised Israel or had dropped its vow to destroy it.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Israel dismissed the manifesto, penned by Palestinians in its jails, as "double-speak" aimed at lifting a US-led aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority.
Preparing to confront the Israeli forces, Palestinian gunmen fanned out behind barricades and in foxholes. They blocked roads with piles of sand and planted improvised bombs.
A Palestinian militant group which said it had abducted a Jewish settler in the West Bank threatened to kill him in response to Israel's incursion.
Israeli police have not confirmed the kidnapping claim by the Popular Resistance Committee, but are investigating the disappearance of an 18-year-old settler.
Israeli troops have made brief incursions into Gaza in recent weeks, but nothing on the scale of Wednesday's operation.
"We are trying to make it clear that we will take the necessary steps to ensure his (Shalit's) safe return," said Israeli Captain Jacob Dallal. "Much still depends on the Palestinians."
Hoping to head off a major flare-up, Egypt has been trying to broker Shalit's release. So has France, as the 19-year-old conscript has French as well as Israeli citizenship.
But mediators said they were close to calling it quits before the Israeli troops moved into Gaza.
There has been little word on Shalit's fate. Hamas's armed wing offered to release details if Israel frees Palestinian minors and women held in its prisons, but Olmert said such a swap was not up for discussion.
The last time Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier was in 1994. He was killed during a rescue attempt.
Militant groups said Sunday's raid was in response to the killing of 14 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air strikes in Gaza against militants behind cross-border rocket attacks.
Hamas's armed wing this month called off a truce it had largely followed since the start of 2005.
Reuters