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Israel Storms Palestinian Autonomous Zone In Gaza
BEIT HANUN, Gaza Strip, April 16 (News Agencies) - Israeli military forces Monday night raided Beit Hanun, an area under full Palestinian control, in the northern Gaza Strip, destroying Palestinian border police positions with bulldozers, according to Palestinian witnesses.
In a parallel attack, Israeli helicopter gunships struck the Palestinian locality of Dir el-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip.
Fierce fighting also erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinians around the West Bank town of Bethlehem, triggering Israeli shelling of nearby villages that left at least three Palestinians injured.
The violence flared as Israel faced a new conflict on its northern border following deadly air raids on a Syrian target deep inside Lebanon after a Hezbollah militia attack Saturday that killed an Israeli soldier.
Monday night's airstrike on Dir el-Balah destroyed positions that served as a training center for Force 17, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's elite guard unit, and also a nearby mosque, the same sources said.
Three Palestinian civilians were also wounded, Palestinian medical sources added.
Israeli tanks also shot at buildings in the Palestinian area of Rafah on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, witnesses said.
Israeli helicopters also fired rockets on Palestinian targets south of Gaza City where at least two heavy explosions were heard, Palestinian witnesses said.
A long-range missile fired from Israeli territory also hit a Palestinian police building, sources added.
Witnesses also said the Israeli navy was bombing the Dir el-Balah sector.
Israeli military sources confirmed a fresh offensive on the Gaza Strip Monday evening, but did not comment further.
The armored assault on Beit Hanun was the second Israeli ground incursion in five days on an area under full Palestinian security and administrative control, also known as Zone A according to peace agreements signed with Israel since 1993.
It was also the second such offensive since the start of the Palestinian uprising in late September.
The Israeli raids came after five mortar bombs were fired Monday night on the Israeli town of Sderot, to the east of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesperson Ranaan Gissin had threatened the Palestinian Authority (PA) following the mortar shelling.
"We will not tolerate this type of action and the proper response will come," he added. "There is a price to be paid for whatever action they take."
"It was the first time in the recent fighting that a major city in Israel has become a target, it is almost like attacking London during the Blitz in World War II," Gissin told AFP, saying it was "sheer luck" that there were no casualties.
He accused the PA of orchestrating the mortar shellings. But the PA denied any involvement in pounding Sderot.
"These shells were fired by groups who escape the control of the Authority," said Samir Rantissi, a PA spokesman.
The Palestinians said Israel had injured three Palestinian security agents with tank fire in Beit Hanun in an initial response to the mortar attack.
In its first ground assault into a fully-controlled Palestinian zone last Wednesday, a Palestinian policeman and a civilian were killed and around 40 people injured when Israeli tanks opened fire on the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip.
Three Palestinians were also wounded when Israeli tanks pounded Palestinian villages around the West Bank town of Bethlehem as several firefights raged between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians, witnesses and medical sources said.
They said Israel was shelling Beit Jala, el-Khader and Beit Sahur and two nearby refugee camps after the Israeli army reported that several of its military posts came under fire.
The army said shots were fired at the Jewish settlement of Gilo, which lies inside Jerusalem's municipal boundaries near Beit Jala, and at two military outposts on the road linking Jerusalem to settlements in the southern West Bank.
It also said shots were fired on an army post at Rachel's Tomb, a strongly fortified Jewish shrine in an Israeli controlled sector on the northern edge of Bethlehem.
Also Monday night, an Israeli soldier was lightly injured when stabbed at a roadblock near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, a military spokesman said.
Other Israeli soldiers posted at the roadblock shot down the assailant, military radio said.
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