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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: July 29, 2006 |
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Israeli tanks pushed back into the Gaza Strip before dawn Saturday, a day after ending an unusually deadly incursion that killed 30 Palestinians over three days.
Seven tanks crossed just over Gaza's northern border, Palestinian security officials said. The army had said its withdrawal Friday was temporary and did not mean its monthlong offensive in the Gaza Strip was over.
Also Saturday Israeli forces attacked a site on the Gaza-Egypt border where militants had been tunneling, the army said. Palestinian officials said electric cables had been destroyed in the attack, knocking out power to the nearby town of Rafah.
The army said its aircraft had also attacked a building housing a weapons cache in Gaza city. No injuries were reported in either incident.
On Friday Palestinians streamed out of their homes, inspecting their battered houses and vehicles while rescue workers searched for bodies underneath rubble. Militants picked up mines and explosives they had planted to hit Israeli tanks.
Israel's Gaza offensive was sparked by a a cross-border raid by Hamas-linked militants that captured Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, and killed two others on June 25.
Palestinian officials said they had not received a response to their demand that Israel guarantee that it will free women, children and long-serving Palestinian prisoners before an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants is released.
Dr. Salah Bardawil, a senior Hamas official, said Israel's refusal to guarantee that it would release any Palestinian prisoners if Shalit were freed had created a stalemate.
Shalit is believed to remain in the custody of Palestinian militant groups.
The world's attention stayed fixed further north, in Lebanon, where Israel is battling Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel's second front opened on the Lebanese border after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid July 12.
Bardawil denied reports that Hamas and Hezbollah were cooperating in negotiations for the release of prisoners.
According to an Associated Press count, Israeli troops have killed 159 Palestinians since they started attacking the Gaza Strip to try to recover Shalit and stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel. Most of the dead were militants but a considerable number were civilians. |
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