Wednesday, March 17, as part of what it called "a relentless offensive" against militants after two suicide bombers killed nearly a dozen people as they struck the strategic Israeli port Ashdod over the weekend.
The latest Israeli military action against militants and their leaders began late on Tuesday, March 16, when three helicopter missiles crashed into the house of an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza City, killing two Palestinians, news reports said. The commander escaped with minor injuries.
At least five Palestinians were killed in Israeli military action in the past 24 hours. Witnesses said the helicopter fired at a group of people gathered in a street in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza.
TROOPS UNDER FIRE
Israeli military sources said the group was firing on Israeli troops who had raided the camp earlier demolishing seven houses.
Tuesday evening and again early Wednesday morning, Israeli attack helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza City, killing at least four people. The raids came just hours after Israel’s security Cabinet approved a military response to a double suicide bombing in the port of Ashdod on Sunday.
Israel Radio quoted senior military sources on Wednesday as saying the ongoing operation would be low key and would not involve a reoccupation of Gaza, the Voice of America (VOA) reported.
SECURITY BARRIER
The Israeli government pledged to continue working on a security barrier to separate Israel from Pelestinian lands, which it claims is the only way to keep terrorists outside the Jewish state.
Israeli officials said the campaign was aimed at smashing Gaza militant factions to prevent them from claiming victory should Prime Minister Ariel Sharon go ahead with a planned evacuation of Jewish settlements from the seaside territory.
Palestinian gunmen took up positions and swore to fight to the finish, anticipating a wide scale Israeli incursion into Gaza, where 7500 Israelis live amid 1.3 million Palestinians.
"We prepared ourselves and said farewell to our families. If they come in it will be a battle to the death," one gunman said. In the volatile Rafah camp of southern Gaza, an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles into a group of Palestinians, killing a gunman and a bystander, witnesses told the Reuters news agency.
