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Israeli soldiers remove the bodies of two dead comrades after an attack by Palestinian militants at a military post just outside the Gaza Strip. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners June 25, 2006 |
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Hamas militants, backed by reinforcements in the Gaza Strip, infiltrated southern Israel through a 300 meter tunnel Sunday, lobbing grenades and bombs inside a tank at a border military post, killing two soldiers and kidnapping a third, the military said.
Those killed were identified as Lieutenant Hanan Barak (20) from Arad and Sergeant Pavel Slocker from Dimona. Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by the militants after being wounded, Palestinian sources said.
The pre-dawn attack on the military outpost near the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel, Gaza and Egypt was the first by Gaza militants since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last summer.
Militants from Hamas, the Palestinians' ruling party, and other, smaller factions that took part said it was meant to avenge Israel's recent killing of militant leaders and civilians. Three of militants were killed in a gunbattle with soldiers, they said.
Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told a news conference at the nearby Kibbutz Kerem Shalom communal farm that the abducted soldier was alive -- contradicting Palestinian militants who said they had the body of an Israeli fighter. The chief of Israel's southern command, Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, said it was possible the seized soldier had been wounded.
Militants historically have used captured Israeli soldiers -- dead or alive -- as bargaining chips for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and have repeatedly threatened recently to kidnap troops.
Israeli and Palestinian officials both contacted Egypt, which in the past has been instrumental in mediating prisoner releases. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed the attack with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, his office said.
Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks and Apache helicopters, moved into Gaza to search the tunnel area. Gaza's crossings were shut down, including the nearby Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the impoverished coastal strip's main gateway to the outside world.
Rafah had been shut down for nearly three days last week after Israel received information about a planned attack in the area, but had been reopened for traffic on Friday.
Militants crossed under Israel's border fence with Gaza through a tunnel and hurled bombs and grenades at an Israeli tank and an empty armored personnel carrier at the border post, blowing up both, the military said. Two soldiers inside the tank were killed, one was seriously wounded, and a fourth was seized, Kochavi said.
Simultaneously, anti-tank missiles were fired at both vehicles from inside Gaza, the army said.
Two other militants, meanwhile, attacked a 25-yard-high observation post with assault rifles, touching off a gunbattle with soldiers in which several militants were killed, the military said.
The military said three other soldiers were slightly wounded by a bomb detonated shortly after the initial strike.
Israeli tanks that crossed the border into Gaza after the attack kicked up smoke and dust as ground troops made their way about one-half of a mile into Palestinian-controlled territory. Palestinians were ordered to evacuate the area, as Israeli helicopter gunships fired machine-guns at open fields.
Hamas, which recently resumed its open involvement in rocket fire on Israel, confirmed its participation in the attack Sunday. The small Popular Resistance Committees and a previously unknown group, the Islamic Army, also said they took part.
"This operation is a natural response to the Israeli crimes of killing women and children, and the assassination of two (militant) leaders," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
One of the militant leaders, PRC leader Jamal Abu Samhadana, was killed in an Israeli air strike on June 8, shortly after accepting a senior security position in the Hamas-led government.
Abu Samhadana's death set off a chain of intensified hostilities that have included dozens of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel and retaliatory Israeli air and artillery strikes that killed 13 Palestinian civilians and two gunmen. Additionally, Palestinians blame Israel for a June 9 explosion at a Gaza beach that left eight picnickers dead, rejecting Israel's claims that it wasn't firing artillery at the area when the blast occurred.
The Hamas government has ignored international calls to disarm and recognize Israel, despite crushing economic sanctions. For weeks, the group has been unable to reach an understanding with Abbas, who wants to restart long-stalled peace talks, on accepting a proposal that would implicitly recognize Israel.
Abbas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas were scheduled to resume talks on Sunday. If Hamas doesn't accept the document, Abbas has said he will move ahead with a July 26 referendum on the proposal. Opinion polls indicate Palestinian voters back Abbas.
The statement from Abbas' office urged the international community to restrain Israel from using the attack as an excuse to carry out a broad attack in Gaza. In talks with faction leaders on the document, factions had voiced their commitment to a February 2005 cease-fire with Israel, it said.
"All had agreed to continue the cease-fire and stop all the military attacks against Israel, in order not to give Israel any pretext to launch a large-scale military operation that they were threatening our people with in Gaza," the statement said. "This attack contradicts all we heard."
The attack Sunday immediately touched off a closure of main crossing points between Israel and Gaza, including Rafah and the Karni passage between Gaza and Egypt, which is crucial to the already devastated Palestinian economy because it is the main conduit for goods coming in and out of Gaza.
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