NORTHERN GAZA

Hours before the latest communique, Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers pushed into the northern Gaza Strip in what an Israeli military source described as a "pin-point operation" to locate tunnels and explosives near the border fence.

"This is not a massive ground entrance," the source said.

Israeli military affairs commentators said the force could be preparing the ground for a wider incursion into the area, which has been used by militants as a launching ground for rocket attacks against southern Israel.

Israel, which pulled out of Gaza last year, sent troops and tanks into the southern Gaza Strip last Wednesday after gunmen seized Shalit, a 19-year-old tank gunner in a raid in which two other soldiers and two of the attackers were killed.

Israeli aircraft have been mounting nightly attacks in the Gaza Strip, including one on Sunday that wrecked the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

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