Posted on 11/13/2002 5:57:35 PM PST by HAL9000
Israeli forces enter edge of Gaza City-witnesses
GAZA, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Dozens of Israeli tanks and armoured vehicles rolled into the southern outskirts of Palestinian-ruled Gaza City early on Thursday, witnesses and security sources said.
They said a convoy of about 50 vehicles had entered the As-Sabra neighbourhood of the Gaza Strip's main city where Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas, lives.
It was not clear if Yassin was at home but aides say he often spends the night elsewhere as a precaution.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment. It has been trying to rein in Hamas, which has carried out a series of suicide bombings in the two-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel has also sent tanks and troops into the West Bank cities of Nablus and Tulkarm this week in raids which it says are intended to root out militants after a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis at a kibbutz in northern Israel on Sunday.
Of course not. These newfangled electric powered wheel chairs give their owners unheard of mobility.
Not that old technique!
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)--Israeli forces backed by 30 tanks and three helicopters stormed into central Gaza City early Thursday, the deepest incursion into the city in more than two years, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.
Soldiers fired machine guns as they penetrated roughly more than a mile into the city from its southern entrance, witnesses said.
The army declined immediate comment.
Witnesses said that at least two bulldozers joined the operation, suggesting that forces might be planning to destroy homes of suspected militants, a frequent tactic used by Israel.
The army rolled into the central Talalhawa neighborhood, in an area that is home to the headquarters of the Palestinian Preventive Security and the studios of Palestinian state television.
Troops also swept into the neighborhood of Sabra, which is home to many members of the militant Palestinian group Hamas, including its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
Two Palestinians, including a guard at the television station, were taken to hospital with light injuries. At least a dozen ambulances rushed to the area of the siege, witnesses said.
The incursion marked the farthest penetration by Israeli forces into the city since renewed fighting erupted between Palestinians and Israelis in the fall of 2000, witnesses said.
In a pre-dawn strike a day earlier, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles on a suspected weapons-making workshop in the city center, the second such strike on the site in two days.
The attack demolished an automotive repair shop whose owner insisted had nothing to do with the manufacture of weapons. Israel said the site was believed to produce mortar shells and rockets like ones used in recent attacks on nearby Israeli communities.
Copyright 2002, The Associated Press.
Not that old technique!
Fell for that twice last month!
They allways seem so hyper to fight when the BBC cameras come around.
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