GAZA CITY ø A combined Israeli military force sustained heavy
casualties during an operation against Palestinian weapons factories in the
Gaza Strip.
Israeli and Palestinian sources said an Israeli armored personnel
vehicle was destroyed by a mine during the fighting on Tuesday. Virtually
all of the Israeli soldiers in the APC were said to have been killed or
injured in the explosion.
Hamas, which claimed responsibility for laying the mine, said six
soldiers died in the blast, an assertion that was not confirmed by Israeli
military sources. But the Israeli sources acknowledged that several soldiers
were killed.
During the Israeli operation, three Palestinians were killed, including
a Hamas operative and a senior Fatah insurgent.
Israeli main battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, attack helicopters
and infantry struck several suspected weapons factories in Gaza City, the
sources said. The military operation targeted the Zeitoun neighborhood of
Gaza City, said to contain factories for the production of mortars.
The Israeli invasion of Gaza City was said to have been part of an
effort to halt the production of Kassam-class short-range missiles and
mortars. Hamas was said to be producing the Kassam as part of plans to
strike Israeli towns in both the Gaza Strip and inside the Jewish state.
Israeli sources said the military found and destroyed five lathes and 32
tools for the production of the Kassam. They said that after the destruction
of the Israeli APC, the military poured additional troops into Gaza City.
The military sources said Palestinian insurgents in Zeitoun often
targeted the nearby Israeli community of Netsarim. Overnight Tuesday, Hamas
gunners fired two Kassam missiles toward Israel. Nobody was injured in the
attack.
Israeli military sources said Palestinian weapons factories in the Gaza
Strip have benefited from accelerated smuggling of components and explosives
from neighboring Egypt. They said Palestinian insurgents have succeeded in
digging
weapons smuggling tunnels with professional tools rather than by hand.
On Sunday, an Israeli military force found a five-meter deep and
200-meter long tunnel. Six Palestinian workers were found in the tunnel.
"For the first time we uncovered advanced tools for digging tunnels,"
Lt. Col. Babi Ben-Itach, an Israeli battalion commander, told the Israeli
daily Maariv. "We are talking about an entirely different rate of digging
from what we have seen so far."
The Israeli operation in Gaza City capped several days of intensive
military operations in the area. United Nations officials said that from May
1-10, Israeli authorities demolished or heavily damaged 131 residential
buildings in the Gaza Strip. They said that this has resulted in 1,100
homeless Palestinians.
