Israeli forces push into Gaza Strip

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces pushed into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants, the army said.

Tanks and armored vehicles entered the territory near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.

An army spokeswoman confirmed the troops had moved into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Meanwhile, aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter strike on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.

Israel threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.

The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year.

It is a major test for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory captured in a 1967 war and land which Palestinians would like to see as part of an independent state.

With tension growing on Tuesday, Hamas reached a political deal with the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, but rejected any suggestion the plan meant it recognized Israel and had dropped its vow to destroy it.

Israel dismissed the manifesto, penned by Palestinians in its jails, as "double-speak" aimed at lifting a U.S.-led aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority.

Inside Gaza for the talks, Abbas, who is usually based in the West Bank, is unable to leave because Israel has imposed a blockade on the territory.

As tanks and troops massed outside Gaza, Palestinian gunmen fanned out behind barricades and in foxholes. Tank fire into southern Gaza lightly wounded one gunman.

Israeli troops have made several brief incursions into Gaza in recent weeks, but nothing on the scale of Wednesday's operation.

"We are trying to make it clear that we will take the necessary steps to ensure his (Shalit's) safe return," said Israeli Captain Jacob Dallal. "Much still depends on the Palestinians."

Hoping to head off a major flare-up in more than 5 years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Egypt has been trying to broker Shalit's release. So has France, as the 19-year-old conscript has French as well as Israeli citizenship.

"It will be a few hours yet until we know it is hopeless," one mediator told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

There has been little word on Shalit's fate. Hamas's armed wing offered to release details if Israel frees Palestinian minors and women held in its prisons, but such a swap was ruled out by Olmert.

Israeli media said there was concern Shalit may have already been spirited out of Gaza by his captors.

Militant groups said Sunday's raid was in response to the killing of 14 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air strikes in Gaza against militants behind cross-border rocket attacks.

Hamas's armed wing this month called off a truce it had largely followed since the start of 2005. The group carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis during a Palestinian uprising.

Thanks for the link. My Predator is in the shop. ;-)

--- earlier reuters article re: airstrikes ---

Planes strike at Gaza as Israel prepares offensive
Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft struck at the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday and armored forces prepared for a threatened offensive after mediators said hope of recovering a kidnapped soldier through talks was almost gone.

The army said planes attacked two bridges on a route linking northern and southern Gaza to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter attacked a power plant in central Gaza with missiles, cutting electricity to much of the territory.

At the edge of the strip, troops boarded tanks and armored personnel carriers as they revved their engines.

"Time is fast running out," Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said in a speech on Tuesday night.

Israel has threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on Sunday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.

The hostage crisis has brought relations between Israel and the Palestinians to their lowest point since Israel quit Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation.

It is a major test for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, elected in March on a platform of carrying out a similar withdrawal from parts of the occupied West Bank, another territory captured in a 1967 war and where Palestinians seek statehood.

ABBAS, HAMAS REACH DEAL

Israel dismissed the manifesto, penned by Palestinians in its jails, as "double-speak" aimed at lifting a U.S.-led aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority.

Inside Gaza for the talks, Abbas, who is usually based in the West Bank, is unable to leave because Israel has imposed a blockade on the territory.

As tanks and troops massed outside Gaza, Palestinian gunmen fanned out behind barricades and in foxholes. Tank fire into southern Gaza lightly wounded one gunman.

"We are trying to make it clear that we will take the necessary steps to ensure his (Shalit's) safe return," said Israeli Captain Jacob Dallal. "Much still depends on the Palestinians."

But mediators were close to calling it quits.

"It will be a few hours yet until we know it is hopeless," one mediator told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

There has been little word on Shalit's fate. Hamas's armed wing offered to release details if Israel frees Palestinian minors and women held in its prisons, but such a swap was ruled out by Olmert.

Israeli media said there was concern Shalit may have been spirited out of Gaza by his captors.

Militant groups said Sunday's raid was in response to the killing of 14 Palestinian civilians in Israeli air strikes in Gaza against militants behind cross-border rocket attacks.

Hamas's armed wing this month called off a truce it had largely followed since the start of 2005. The group carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against Israelis during a Palestinian uprising.

(Additional reporting by Yannis Behrakis in Kerem Shalom)

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