GAZA CITY (AFP)
Israel troops killed two Palestinian militants as both sides traded threats on Thursday, a day after a fierce incursion into the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians.
Hamas vowed to avenge Wednesday's assault on the impoverished territory, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Islamist movement bears "direct responsibility" for the fighting, which killed three Israeli soldiers.
Reacting to Wednesday's violence, which also saw the deaths of five Palestinians under the age of 15, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP that "all options are open to repel this aggression against our people."
In an Internet statement Hamas called on its fighters to attack Israel "in every place and with all means available."
In an interview with Israel's Maariv newspaper, Olmert said: "We consider that Hamas bears sole, direct responsibility for what happened in Gaza and it will pay the price."
Israel has repeatedly threatened to launch a wide scale operation to oust Hamas from Gaza, but media have speculated that it may wait until after the week-long Jewish Passover holiday, which begins on Saturday.
Police have gone on high alert for Passover, one of the holiest periods of the year. They have deployed thousands of reinforcements around the country, and the army is strictly limiting Palestinian movement into and out of the occupied West Bank. |
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Clashes Israel troops continued to strike Palestinian militants on Thursday, killing two Islamic Jihad fighters during a predawn arrest operation in the West Bank and a militant in southern Gaza who the army said approached a border crossing.
The fighting came a day after militants ambushed Israeli troops near the Nahal Oz fuel terminal and crossing in the central Gaza Strip, killing three soldiers and touching off an Israeli incursion backed by helicopters.
Israeli troops killed 18 Palestinians, mostly civilians, in what was the deadliest day in the Hamas-ruled territory since March 1, when more than 60 Palestinians were killed in an air and land blitz.
Hundreds of people marched in Gaza City at the funeral for 23-year-old Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by a shell fired from an Israeli tank he was filming during Wednesday's incursion.
That blast also killed three other people, including two boys on a bicycle.
According to Dr Muawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza emergency services, most of the Palestinians killed on Wednesday were civilians. |
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Moscow summit Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Moscow, has strongly condemned the Israeli military assault and on Thursday called for a new Middle East peace conference in the Russian capital.
Moscow has already been pushing for such a meeting as a follow-up to one in Annapolis, Marlyand, last November that led to Abbas resuming peace talks with Olmert. |
