Palestinians shell Israelis despite Gaza raids

Mortar shells rained down on Israeli villages inside and outside the Gaza Strip overnight, despite two short Israeli incursions into Palestinian-controlled areas.

Five mortar shells fired from inside Gaza late last night landed near the collective farming village of Nir Am, just across the fence from Gaza, the military said.

Two more mortar bombs fell at Kfar Darom, an isolated Jewish enclave in Gaza. There were no injuries.

Israeli tanks shelled a Palestinian police post in northern Gaza, Palestinians said, but it was not clear if this was retaliation for the mortar attacks.

Palestinians and Israeli forces exchanged heavy fire near Bethlehem in the West Bank, the military said, also reporting gunfire incidents in other parts of the West Bank.

Earlier, Israeli bulldozers guarded by a tank briefly entered Palestinian-controlled territory and knocked down a police post near the Palestinian town of Rafah in Gaza.

It followed an Israeli pullout from a sliver of land at the other end of Gaza, taken after Palestinians fired mortar shells from there at Sderot, an Israeli town.

The Palestinians complained that Israel crossed a red line by systematically violating their jurisdiction in areas given them in past accords.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians would respond with ‘‘popular resistance’’ to Israel’s incursions.

With the violence continuing, Sharon absorbed criticism from settlers, who charged that he was not doing enough to stop it, from hard-line politicians, who blamed him for ordering a pullout from the Gaza enclave because of US pressure, and from peace activists, who said that Sharon was thinking only in terms of force, not negotiations.

The US State Department denounced the takeover of about one square mile of Gaza territory across from Sderot, and soon the Israeli soldiers were on their way out, though their commander, Brig Gen Yair Naveh, had just said they might remain in place for months.

Sharon aides denied the pullout was the result of US pressure and said that the decision to withdraw had been made earlier.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the harsh State Department statement was the result of ‘‘a problem with communications’’.

Despite the official explanations, Sharon’s moves appeared to many like vacillation.

Lawmaker Shaul Yahalom of the pro-settlement National Religious Party said, ‘‘Sharon is covering up an operational failure. Instead of admitting he withdrew under American pressure he shifts the blame to .. Naveh.’’

Critics from the opposite side of the political fence joined in.

‘‘For a long time in Israel there hasn’t been such a fiasco,’’ said opposition leader Yossi Sarid of the dovish Meretz party.

‘‘We reached a conflict with the US ... the Palestinians are now rubbing their hands in glee, we limited our future flexibility in using force, and there is a rift between the political and military levels.’’

Sharon talked to US President George W. Bush yesterday, said Sharon aide Raanan Gissin, and Peres talked with US Secretary of State Colin Powell by telephone to try to smooth the wrinkles over the incursion.

Talking to reporters, Peres said Israel did not intend to take over areas under Palestinian control, but would not tolerate firing of mortars and continued violence.

Peres said the Palestinians must explain why they turned down then-US President Bill Clinton’s plan for a state in almost all of the West Bank and Gaza ‘‘and turn again to bombs and rifles.’’

The Palestinians want a state of all of the territories, with a capital in the Arab section of Jerusalem, and the right of about 4 million refugees to return to their homes in Israel.