Israeli soldiers shot dead three members of a Palestinian rocket squad on Tuesday in the army's first ground raid into the Gaza Strip since an Israeli pullout last year. A Palestinian policeman, who witnesses said rushed to the scene with medics, was also killed by the troops in the brief operation marking a new Israeli military response to frequent cross-border rocket barrages that have caused few casualties. In the occupied West Bank, soldiers killed at least two Palestinian gunmen in separate operations.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has called for the rocket strikes to stop, condemned the Israeli raids as "unjustified escalation that will lead the region into further deterioration and instability".