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An Israeli missile strike in Gaza City damages the building that houses the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from Hamas. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 2, 2006 |
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Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday, in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military was ordered to do "everything" within its power to return the captured 19-year-old corporal, and cautioned that arrests of senior Hamas officials could spread to Gaza, the Islamic militant group's power base, a confidant said.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz, meanwhile, said Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future -- a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside of the Palestinian territories, a political ally said.
Israeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats have been pounding Gaza for the past week in an effort to win the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, seized in a cross-border raid. Thousands of troops were also sent into the coastal strip for Israel's first ground invasion since quitting Gaza nine months ago.
In other attacks Sunday, Israeli aircraft hit a school in Gaza City and Hamas facilities in northern Gaza, where a Hamas militant was killed and another wounded, Palestinian officials said. The military said they were "planning terror attacks against Israel." The Hamas gunman, Shaaban Manoun, 34, was the second militant killed in the five-day Israeli operation. Israeli artillery also fired at open spaces near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the military said. It denied Palestinian radio reports that Hamas training camps were the target. No injuries were reported.
Late last week, Olmert called off plans to broaden the incursion in deference to intense diplomatic efforts involving Egypt and other regional players. Signaling that patience with diplomacy had worn thin, Olmert told the Cabinet on Sunday that his government had instructed the military to "do all it can" to return the soldier safely.
So far, the ground invasion has been focused on southern Gaza, where Israel believes Shalit was taken. On Sunday, officials decided to invade northern Gaza if rocket fire on southern Israel resumes from that area, security officials said.
There has been no rocket fire since Saturday night, the military said.
Palestinians said two missiles fired by attack helicopters set Haniyeh's office ablaze, but because of the early hour -- 1:45 a.m., it was empty, witnesses said. One bystander was slightly injured, hospital officials said.
Haniyeh, inspecting the burning office building shortly after, called the Israeli attack senseless.
"They have targeted a symbol for the Palestinian people," he said. Later, before meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Haniyeh vowed, "This will not break the will of the Palestinian people."
After the meeting, the two men surveyed Haniyeh's damaged office together, waving through a hole in the wall. "The world must understand that this is a dirty, criminal act," Abbas said.
Roni Bar-On, an Israeli Cabinet minister, said the objective of the attack on Haniyeh's office was to "compromise the Hamas government's ability to rule."
"We will strike and will continue to strike at (Hamas') institutions," said Bar-On, an Olmert ally. "They have to understand that we will not continue to let them run amok."
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, took power after winning January parliamentary elections. The group is not monolithic, has a military wing and a political wing, and its political leadership is divided between more moderate elements in the West Bank and Gaza, and the more radical top leadership based in Syria.
Although Israel has said repeatedly in the past that Haniyeh could be a target for assassination, the gunmen holding Shalit are thought to take their orders from Hamas' Damascus-based political chief, Khaled Mashaal, so the pre-dawn attack on the premier's office appeared to be more symbolic than aimed at killing him.
Last week, Israel rounded up 64 Hamas leaders, including eight Cabinet ministers, in a West Bank raid, and on Sunday, Olmert told his Cabinet that arrests could spread outside that territory, a government official close to the Israeli prime minister said. Hamas' roots are in Gaza, and that is where Haniyeh and most other Cabinet ministers live.
"I don't promise that the arrests of senior Hamas officials will be limited to Judea and Samaria," the official quoted Olmert as saying, using the biblical names for the West Bank. "Wherever there is a proven terror infrastructure, there will be arrests. There will be immunity for no one."
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Cabinet session was confidential.
The Hamas officials arrested last week have been questioned, and military officials said the government would bring the detainees before a military court for the first time mid-week to ask to extend their detention.
Israel, meanwhile, reopened its main cargo crossing with Gaza on Sunday to allow food, medical supplies and fuel to be sent in to the impoverished strip from Israel, Israeli officials said.
The Karni passage, sealed after the militant attack, will be open for six hours each day for four days this week, said Yoni Dotan, an Israeli official at the crossing. Fuel was also moving through another border passage nearby, Dotan said.
The ministry did not specify what types of supplies would be allowed through. While food shortages have not been reported, human rights groups have cautioned that Gaza could face a humanitarian crisis because about 43 percent of the territory's electricity supply was knocked out after Israeli missiles struck Gaza's only power station. Israel has increased its supply of electricity to Gaza, the Israeli army said Saturday, but fuel to power generators has been scarce.
On Saturday, Hamas demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel, but Israel rejected that out of hand.
Olmert told Cabinet ministers at a meeting Sunday that Israel would not yield to Hamas' demands.
"Israel doesn't intend to give into blackmail of any sort," Olmert said. "Giving in today would be an invitation to the next act of terror."
Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad urged Israel to be more flexible.
"I think that if the Israeli government will understand that it's possible to release prisoners, things will end OK," Hamad told Army Radio. "If not, I think the situation will be very difficult for us and for you, too. ... Maybe there will be a (military) escalation and people will die."
Peretz met with senior security officials Saturday night and then called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge the Bush administration to step up pressure on Syria to work for Shalit's release, Israeli officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were unauthorized to make a formal statement.
There has been no direct evidence of the soldier's condition since he was seized.
The AP contributed to this report.
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