Israel shell Palestinian police buildings

In another round of escalation, Israel hammered Palestinian police buildings all over Gaza yesterday, retaliating for the first Palestinian mortar attack on an Israeli town and adding to tension already building on Israel’s border with Lebanon.

The salvo of five mortar shells aimed at Sderot, an Israeli town about 2.5 miles from Gaza, caused no casualties or damage, but Israel said it was an escalation of the conflict .

As Israeli attack helicopters and tanks fired shells and rockets, a bulldozer protected by armoured vehicles leveled farmland near the source of the mortar fire. A military statement said Israeli soldiers would ‘‘occupy positions as obligated by the security situation’’.

Israeli helicopter gunships attacked Palestinian police outposts in Gaza City, Dir al-Balach in central Gaza and Rafah in the south, Palestinian witnesses said. Palestinian doctors said 27 people were injured in the attacks.

Palestinians said Israel fired eight surface-to-surface missiles. The Israeli army would not comment on the rocket attacks.

After Israeli helicopters attacked a main police installation in Gaza City, critically wounding a policeman, children screamed as families fled nearby houses, afraid that the flames from the rocketed base might spread.

Nazem Abu Ali, 45, a Gaza driver, said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was trying to close a Palestinian file he opened in 1982, when he ordered an invasion of Lebanon to drive Palestinian forces out.

Abu Ali, who was in Beirut at the time, said now conditions are different. ‘‘We are on our land and if we are going to leave it, we are going to leave it dead,’’ he said.

The military statement said the Palestinians had ignored repeated warnings to stop mortar attacks against Israeli villages and army positions. Though the military said soldiers would take up new positions, the statement said Israel had no intention of holding Palestinian-controlled territory, and the soldiers would withdraw after the operation was over.

Palestinian Brig Gen Abdel Razek el-Majaidah said Israel’s charge that the official Palestinian Authority was involved in the mortar attacks was ‘‘a false claim’’.

Palestinians cancelled a meeting of security commanders due to take place yesterday. The US-sponsored session, the third in recent days, was designed to defuse the crisis and restore cooperation.

But Gaza security chief Amin al-Hindi said: ‘‘We refuse to hold meetings under these circumstances while the Israeli army is continuing its aggression against our people.’’