The IDF denied early Thursday Palestinian claims that IDF tanks and bulldozers moved into northern Gaza before daybreak Thursday, adding a second front to the Israeli incursion, CNN reported. As air strikes and sonic booms shook Gaza on Wednesday as thousands of Israeli troops backed by tanks penetrated the coastal strip. Witnesses also reported heavy shelling around Gaza's long-closed airport, and IAF missiles hit two empty Hamas training camps and a rocket-building factory. Warplanes flew low over the strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows. Troops in Israel backed up the assault with artillery fire. No casualties were reported in the incursion, launched in southern Gaza. The area's normally bustling streets were eerily deserted, with people taking refuge inside their homes. Dozens of people living near the airport fled to nearby Rafah. Increasing pressure on Hamas, Israeli forces in the West Bank arrested the Palestinian Authority's labor minister, Mohammed Barghouti of Hamas, early Thursday in Ramallah, Palestinian security officials said. The IDF refused to comment, saying the operation was still in progress. Later, Israeli forces reportedly arrested two more Hamas lawmakers.
Earlier Wednesday, backed by columns of tanks, troops from the Givati Brigade were poised to sweep into the northern Gaza Strip in the second phase of "Operation Summer Rains," launched earlier in the day with the goal of retrieving kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit. The troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers, amassed near Kibbutz Mifalsim early Wednesday morning, waited tensely for the invasion order. Their mission was to take control of the northern Gaza Strip, including Beit Hanun and Beit Lahiya, preferred sites for firing Kassam rockets at the Western Negev. Defense Minister Amir Peretz approved the invasion orders late Wednesday night. IAF planes dropped thousands of flyers over Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun Wednesday night, warning residents that they would be endangering their lives if they remained in their homes.
The ultimate goal, Peretz said, was to retrieve Shalit and to stop the incessant Kassam fire, not to reoccupy Gaza. "The murderous kidnapping of Gilad Shalit crossed a red line," Peretz said during a reception at the home of British Ambassador Simon McDonald. "We are utilizing all the diplomatic tools available, but unfortunately we are encountering a brick wall made up of the Palestinian Authority and that is why we decided to operate inside Gaza."