Militants attack town despite Gaza push

DESPITE a massive Israeli offensive to prevent rocket attacks on Israel, Palestinian militants fired two rockets yesterday at the Israeli town of Sderot, as fighting killed at least six Palestinians.

The week-long Gaza incursion, the largest in four years, has left 64 Palestinians and five Israelis dead.

Army commanders spoke of a weeks-long operation, while officials looked even further ahead to Israel's planned evacuation of Gaza settlements next year.

The northern Gaza operation gathered momentum late on Sunday when 25 tanks moved into Beit Hanoun, the town closest to Israel's border and the town of Sderot across the fence.

Israeli forces have cleared a five-mile buffer zone in Gaza to move its towns out of range of the rockets, but militants keep trying.

Early yesterday, two more rockets were fired at Sderot, injuring one man. The Hamas militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. Also, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at Palestinians in Jebaliya, hospital officials said.

There were reports of casualties. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

Earlier, Israeli troops killed four Palestinian militants in a helicopter missile strike as they tried to set off a bomb in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.

Palestinians identified the four as Hamas militants, one of them a field commander in northern Gaza, Fares Masri, 29, the brother of Hamas spokesman Musher Masri, who identified the body. A few hours earlier, Israeli forces targeted a local Hamas commander and another militant in a Gaza City air strike, the army said. The commander was seriously wounded. A second militant and a bystander were also injured.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian civilian in Beit Lahiya while he was standing outside his house, Palestinian witnesses said. In eastern Jebaliya, an off-duty Palestinian police officer was shot in the head when an Israeli helicopter opened fire as he stood on his balcony, hospital officials and relatives said. The Israeli military had no comment on either situation. In a separate incident in Jebaliya, the army said it shot a man who was throwing grenades and planting a bomb.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged on Sunday to expand the operation to stop the rocket fire.

"The forces will have to remain there as long as this danger exists," he said.

Army chief Lt Gen. Moshe Yaalon said the army was looking at being in Gaza "not in terms of days, but weeks".

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said: "We will not accept this."

Israeli officials fear that continuing rocket fire might undermine support for Mr Sharon's Gaza pullout plan.

Critics say after an Israeli exit, the rocket attacks will only escalate. Mr Sharon's own Likud Party has voted against the plan twice and has for decades been the main force behind settlement construction and expansion. Party members have not taken kindly to Mr Sharon's change of heart.