Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin reported at a cabinet meeting Sunday that kidnapped IDF soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit was alive and remained unharmed by his captors. Shalit was kidnapped June 25 during an ambush on a military post near Kerem Shalom that left two other soldiers dead.
Meanwhile on the Gaza front, three Palestinians were killed and at least 11 wounded in IAF strikes in Beit Hanoun early Sunday as IDF troops, tanks, and attack helicopters re-entered the Gaza Strip, firing missiles and clashing with Palestinian gunmen, hospital officials said. Troops entered the town of Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, residents and Palestinian security officials said, as attack helicopters fired machine guns. The IDF said its forces attacked Palestinian operatives and fired a missile at a Hamas office in northern Gaza. Armed Palestinians exchanged fire with IDF forces, and operatives said they set off a land mine next to an IDF bulldozer building embankments near the residential areas of the town. Hamas said its cells activated bombs against several bulldozers and tanks.
Overnight Saturday, the IAF struck a building serving as base for Hamas activities in Jabalya in the northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources reported two Palestinians killed and six wounded. Witnesses and Palestinian security said the new land operation in northern Gaza started Saturday evening with machine gun and shell fire, then about 10 tanks and bulldozers crossed into Gaza, with dozens of other armored vehicles poised just inside Israel. |