Israel Arrests 60 in Gaza Operation
CBNNews.com
December 11, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - During house-to-house searches in the southern Gaza Strip Tuesday morning, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops detained 60 Palestinians for questioning.
Supported by 30 bulldozers and tanks, the operation took place about a mile from Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, not far from the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah. It was the largest IDF operation since the Hamas terror organization's military coup of the Strip in June.
Hamas terrorists fired rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles and mortar shells at IDF troops during the operation.
Four soldiers were injured by an RPG anti-tank missile fired at their tank.
Earlier Tuesday morning, the IDF launched two separate air strikes near the Arab city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, killing two Hamas operatives.
Hamas reported attacking two IDF units there, though they mentioned no casualities.
Beit Hanoun's close proximity to Israel has made it a choice location for daily barrages of Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired on southern Israeli communities. Palestinians move mobile rocket launchers from place to place in and around the city.
Fatah-affiliated Islamic Jihad said one of their members was killed and three wounded in an IDF attack against one of their rocket-launching units.
Palestinian medical sources identified the fatality as a member of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
Meanwhile, talks between the PA chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Upon returning from the U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last month, Olmert expressed doubts about implementing a peace accord with the Palestinians.
"They still do not have the firm infrastructure of a state, with all the accompanying institutions and law enforcement authorities needed for its establishment," he said, though "there is leadership that has declared its desire to make peace with us."
On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Ahmed Qureia, chief Palestinian negotiator, to arrange the logistics for the talks.
Sources: The Associated Press, Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post
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