Seventeen Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed as Israel thrust deep into Gaza in its largest and deadliest operation in months, reoccupying areas evacuated 10 months ago. Israeli troops effectively created a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip as it widened its offensive, upping the pressure on the beleagured Hamas-led government in a bid to free a captured soldier and stop rocket attacks.One Israeli soldier was shot dead in fighting in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a killing claimed by one of the Palestinian militant group behind last week's abduction. Over the day, 17 Palestinian militants and civilians were killed and 46 wounded, local medics and security officials said.
Troops also entered the Palestinian territory deeper in the south, in a two-pronged attack that marked a further escalation in the spiralling crisis that erupted after the June 25 abduction of 19-year-old Corporal Gilad Shalit.
In the worst incident Thursday, 11 Palestinians were killed, including two fighters loyal to the Islamist movement Hamas, and at least 26 wounded in an Israeli bombardment on Beit Lahiya, medics said. Bloodstained bodies could be seen huddled together, as the wounded frantically carried other victims caked in blood through the streets.
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya, whose Hamas-led government has been directly targeted in the offensive, slammed the assault as "collective punishment" on his people and demanded international intervention.
The massive pre-dawn land and air assault on Gaza sent terrified residents scurrying from their homes with babies and belongings. "There were fighters in our garden. We had to flee to protect the children," said one father, rushing away from a Beit Lahiya neighbourhood with his wife and four children.
In northern Gaza, ground forces, armoured vehicles and sappers advanced around five kilometres (three miles) into the territory in a bid to expand a unilaterally declared security zone aimed at preventing rocket attacks. Further troops massed around the towns of Beit Hanun and moved into two neighborhoods of Beit Lahiya in the deepest Israeli ground operation since Shalit was seized 11 days ago, sparking the worst Middle East crisis in months.
Cross-faction units of Palestinian fighters put up stiff resistance in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, calling in intense Israeli aerial firepower, as the army reported eight rocket attacks launched at the Jewish state. A civilian was killed by tank machine-gun fire in Beit Lahiya. In the south, another two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike after ground forces came under fire from multiple rockets. An Israeli soldier was shot dead and two others lightly wounded in clashes with Palestinian militants in the al-Atatra neighbourhood of Beit Lahiya. One of the three Palestinian groups that claimed Shalit's abduction and the killing of two other servicemen last week, said it killed the serviceman. Two members of the armed wing of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas -- which also claimed responsibility the abduction -- and a policeman were killed earlier in helicopter raids and tank shelling.
Trucks and infantry took over the remains of Dugit, Elei Sinai and Nissanit settlements, razed last year as part of Israel's historic pullout from the territory that had meant to draw the curtain on a 38-year occupation. The return of Israeli troops to Gaza has evoked memories of the army's disastrous invasion of Lebanon where its soldiers became bogged down from 1982 until 2000 before pulling out of a self-declared buffer zone.
Dozens of Palestinian families in northern Gaza, fearing for their lives when confronted with the ominous sight of approaching Israeli armour, fled their homes. Women clutching babies and a few belongings scurried away on foot toward a line of waiting taxis amid the boom of gunfire. The offensive has sparked concerns of a humanitarian fall-out with the 1.4 million residents of the largely impoverished Gaza already grappling with food shortages, fuel and power cuts.
Palestinian officials and residents believe Israel is using the soldier's capture as an excuse to try to topple the government led by Hamas, which has not formally recognized Israel or renounced violence. "If you return Gilad Shalit home safe and sound and if you stop your rocket attacks, we will withdraw our forces," Defence Minister Amir Peretz said in comments addressed to the Palestinians on army radio.
The commander of Israel's southern region, Yoav Galant, admitted that troops had encountered "fierce resistance" in parts of Gaza. "Our objective is to keep rocket attacks at bay, so that those who fire them will pay such a heavy price that they will give up," he said.
An unprecedented Hamas rocket attack Tuesday in the centre of the Mediterranean city of Ashkelon saw Israel's security cabinet order the army to step up its assault and section off parts of Gaza. Israel has already bombed the Gaza offices of both the Hamas premier and interior minister, in the occupied West Bank arrested a third of the cabinet and raided multiple militant targets.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Israelis and Palestinians to exercise restraint. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, terming the situation "dangerous" also urged both sides "to step back from the brink". But repeated international calls for restraint have largely fallen on deaf ears in what has become the worst Middle East crisis since Hamas came to power in March and Olmert formally took the helm in May. Israel has vowed to unleash its full military might on Gaza, while Hamas's armed wing has warned of a "new era of violence" against the Jewish state.
Noam Shalit, the father of the captured corporal, urged the Israeli authorities to consider swapping his son for a Palestinian prisoner exchange -- conditions flatly ruled out by the Israeli government. "He is alive and his Palestinian kidnappers do not want to kill him because it is in their interest to keep him alive," Amos Gilad, a senior defence ministry official said two days after an ultimatum set by the captors expired.