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Israel widens scope of operation

In Israel's search for an abducted soldier,Hamas officials are arrested, warplanes fly over Syria and a humanitarian crisis looms. Militants say they killed a Jewish settler.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 29, 2006

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israel sent tanks into northern Gaza and arrested the Palestinian deputy prime minister and dozens of other Hamas government officials early today, escalating its response to the abduction of one of its soldiers.

The moves came after thousands of troops pushed into southern Gaza on Wednesday and Israeli warplanes roared over the summer home of Syria's president, who is blamed for harboring Hamas leaders.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered northern Gaza before daybreak today, adding a second front to the Israeli action in Gaza. The Israeli military had no comment on the latest incursion.

Palestinian gunmen holding an 18-year-old Israeli settler announced before dawn today that they had carried out their threat to kill him. Israeli military officials later said soldiers had found a body matching the description of Eliyahu Asheri near the West Bank city of Ramallah, although officials had yet to make a definitive identification.

Wednesday, members of the Popular Resistance Committees pledged to execute Asheri, from the northern West Bank settlement of Itamar, unless Israel stopped its military operation. It was unclear, however, when the body believed to be Asheri's had been killed.

Israeli helicopters and artillery kept up a steady rain of fire throughout southern Gaza. No deaths or injuries were reported in the Israeli actions. But the warplanes knocked out Gaza's electric power plant, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis. The Hamas-led government warned of "epidemics and health disasters" because of damaged water pipes to central Gaza and the lack of power to pump water. Engineers said repairs could take as long as six months.

Increasing pressure on Hamas within the Palestinian territories, Israeli forces arrested more than 30 lawmakers, according to Palestinian security officials. Among those detained were Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer, Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti and two other ministers in the West Bank. The security officials said two others were arrested in Jenin, and Israeli media reported a roundup of Hamas lawmakers in Jerusalem and other locations.

Army Radio said the arrested Hamas leaders might be used to trade for the captured soldier. Israel has refused to trade prisoners for his release.

As shells crashed down near their houses and tanks maneuvered nearby, many Palestinians declared they would rather face an Israeli invasion than see militants hand over Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, without winning the freedom of Palestinian prisoners in return.

"They must not give him back for free," said Abu Yusef, 36, who carried his youngest children more than a mile to safety after Israeli tanks entered the airport behind his house in Shoka, a village on the outskirts of Rafah in southern Gaza near the Egyptian border. "We have children in prison, women who even give birth in prison, elderly people, and sick people. What do the Israelis have to fear from people like this?"

Rafah took the early brunt of the offensive. Israeli missiles hit open fields just outside town, striking empty training camps once used by Hamas fighters.

"They always talk about aiming at open land," said Ahmed Hissi, the white-bearded, white-robed patriarch of his family. "But we live here!"

His daughter Sabrin, a young Palestinian mother of two, was outside the house Wednesday morning with a plastic bucket, trying to salvage precious water from a shattered irrigation pipe, when she heard the shriek of incoming artillery shells.

Snatching up 2-year-old Salah and 3-year-old Ines, she fled indoors, huddling with them in the concrete-block bathroom while shrapnel punched gaping holes in the walls of the living room and back bedroom.

"I felt death was very close to me and to my children," she said, still tearful an hour after the barrage.

Although the Israeli action was sparked by the abduction of Shalit, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government also is alarmed by the firing of homemade rockets on Israeli communities around Gaza and support for Hamas in the Arab world, especially from Syria.

In a clear warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli airplanes flew over his seaside home near the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria, military officials confirmed, citing the "direct link" between his government and Hamas. Israeli television reports said that four planes were involved and that Assad was there at the time. Senior Hamas leaders live in Syria, and there's growing belief that they, rather than their counterparts in Gaza, were behind Shalit's abduction.

Syria confirmed Israeli warplanes entered its airspace, but said its air defenses forced the aircraft to flee.

In Gaza late Wednesday, Israeli missiles also hit a rocket-building factory and several roads. Warplanes flew low over the coastal strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows. Troops in Israel backed up the assault with artillery fire.

The area's normally bustling streets were deserted.

Witnesses reported heavy shelling around Gaza's long-closed airport, which Israeli troops took over. Dozens of people living near the airport fled to nearby Rafah.

In Rafah, Nivine Abu Shbeke, a 23-year-old mother of three, hoarded bags of flour, boxes of vegetables and other supplies. "We're worried about how long the food will last," she said. "The children devour everything."

Dozens of Palestinian militants armed with automatic weapons and grenades braced for the attack.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity."

Diplomatic efforts to free Shalit bogged down with Hamas demanding a prisoner swap and Israel demanding Shalit's unconditional release. Shalit was abducted by Hamas-linked militants on Sunday and is believed to be in southern Gaza.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said.

Abbas and Egyptian dignitaries urged Assad to use his influence with Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas leader exiled in Syria, to free Shalit. Assad agreed, but without results, said a senior Abbas aide.

As for Mashaal, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the hard-line Hamas leader, who appears to be increasingly at odds with more moderate Hamas politicians in Gaza, is in Israel's sights for assassination.

"Khaled Mashaal, as someone who is overseeing, actually commanding the terror acts, is definitely a target," Ramon told Army Radio.

The White House kept up its pressure on Hamas, saying the Palestinian government must "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the United States also urged Israeli restraint.

"In any actions the government of Israel may undertake, the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed, and also that it avoid the unnecessary destruction of property and infrastructure," said White House press secretary Tony Snow.

Information from the Boston Globe, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

[Last modified June 29, 2006, 05:49:26]