Israeli troops advance into Gaza towns

Israeli ground troops, tanks and armoured vehicles advanced into two Gaza Strip towns today in pursuit of Palestinian rocket squads, even as the Red Cross - in a major blow to aid efforts – suspended activities in the impoverished territory after two of its workers were briefly kidnapped.

Snipers positioned themselves on rooftops in Beit Hanoun and Jebaliya in northern Gaza as the ground troops fanned out, and three Palestinian girls were wounded by Israeli bullet fire outside a school in Beit Hanoun, Palestinian security officials said.

The army confirmed it was operating in the area as part of its ongoing offensive against Gaza rocket squads, but gave no other details.

Beit Hanoun was the site of a week-long incursion earlier this month in which some 50 militants and at least seven civilians were killed.

The operation left behind a wide swath of destruction, but failed to curb the rocket attacks.

In the first three weeks of November, militants launched 155 rockets, up from about 70 in October and 65 in September, the army said.

In other violence today, Israeli tank fire killed a member of Hamas’ police force in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials said. The army said it fired at a group of armed men laying explosive charges in the path of soldiers operating in the area. Palestinians said he was standing with a group of men outside a building.

In Israel yesterday, a man wounded by Palestinian rocket fire a day earlier died of his injuries.

“No government would tolerate such attacks, and neither will Israel,” said Israeli government official David Baker, after the second rocket fatality within a week.

Separately, a rocket fired from Gaza hit the entrance of a school in southern Israel shortly before pupils arrived this morning. No one was hurt.

Another rocket fell nearby and a third rocket hit a farm close to the Israel-Gaza border fence, damaging a chicken coop but causing no casualties, the army said.

Yesterday evening, a former Fatah Cabinet minister, Abdel Aziz Shahin, 62, was shot and wounded in Gaza City just after criticising the ruling Hamas group on a radio show, hospital officials said. There was no claim of responsibility.

The increasing violence in Gaza coincided with the Red Cross’ suspension of most operations there after two of its workers were kidnapped.

The two Italian aid workers – the latest in a series of foreigners abducted in recent months – were released unharmed early Wednesday, Palestinian security officials said. They were kidnapped yesterday by gunmen in central Gaza who stopped their car.

The Red Cross’ open-ended suspension of its field activities spelled further hardship in the violence-wracked coastal strip, where the organisation facilitates movement of ambulances and emergency supplies.

Iyad Nasr, a spokesman for the Red Cross’s Gaza office, said Tuesday that the organisation had ceased all field operations and would intervene only “in matters of life and death". Workers have been ordered to stay in their offices because of fears for their safety, Nasr said.

The Red Cross said Claudio Moroni, 36, and Gianmarco Onorato, 63, were abducted in Deir el-Balah. Palestinian security officials said one of the Red Cross workers was travelling on a Canadian passport, but it was not known which one.

Over the past two years, Gaza gunmen – usually seeking money or jobs – have kidnapped more than a dozen foreign aid workers and journalists. Most have been released quickly, and no one has been harmed.