Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments in the southern Gaza Strip
on Wednesday, bracing for a major assault after Israel sent in troops and tanks
and bombarded bridges and a power station to pressure militants to release a
captured soldier.
Palestinians look at a bridge destroyed by
Israeli army warplanes on a main road in the northern Gaza Strip, near Gaza City
Wednesday June 28, 2006. Israeli tanks and troops entered southern Gaza and
planes attacked three bridges and a power station, knocking out electricity in
most of the coastal strip early Wednesday and stepping up the pressure on
Palestinian militants holding captive a 19-year-old Israeli
soldier.[AP]
No casualties were reported.
It was Israel's first ground offensive since it pulled all of its soldiers
and settlers out of Gaza last summer, and Palestinians, holed up at home, were
bracing for a major strike. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel
wouldn't balk at "extreme action" to bring the soldier home, but had no
intention of reoccupying Gaza.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime
against humanity," and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against
the Israeli troops.
Overnight, Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of the
Gaza town of Rafah under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian
security officials said.
Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza's only power station,
cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station
said. The station's three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were
engulfed in flames, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where
water pumps are powered by electricity.
The Israeli military said in a statement that three bridges were attacked "to
impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier," Cpl.
Gilad Shalit, 19. Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian
security officials said.
Witnesses reported heavy artillery shelling near the long-closed Gaza airport
into a village east of Rafah, and warplanes also flew low over Gaza City,
rocking the city with sonic booms and shattering windows.
Troops in Israel backed up the assault, firing artillery into Gaza.
"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his
family," Olmert said. "All the military activity that started overnight will
continue in the coming days."
"We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We do not intend to stay there. We have
one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home," he added.
Olmert repeated that Israel will not negotiate Shalit's release with militant
groups.