Israeli Attacks Intensify In Gaza
21 Palestinians Killed As Israelis Retake Empty Jewish Settlements
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Play CBS Video Video Israel Steps Up Gaza Pressure The crisis in the Gaza strip intensified as Israel pressed its campaign to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier and stop Palestinian rocket attacks. Sheila MacVicar reports.
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Video Tensions Escalate In Gaza Nearly two weeks after Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier, the Israeli military launched what may be the start of a major operation in northern Gaza. Sheila MacVicar has the story.
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Israeli soldiers take position in a house during an operation on the outskirts of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 6, 2006. (AP Photo)
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A man carries the lifeless body of a Palestinian boy after an Israeli strike during clashes with militants in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, Thursday July 6, 2006. (AP Photo)
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Palestinian militants and a police officer take position during clashes with Israeli troops operating in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 6, 2006. (AP Photo)
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An Israeli tank advances towards the northern Gaza Strip, July 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
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An injured Palestinian is taken into Shifa hospital in Gaza City after the Israeli army, Palestinian witnesses said, shelled the northern Gaza beach early Thursday, July 6, 2006. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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Israel began its ground invasion on June 28, three days after militants linked to Hamas captured Cpl. Shalit in a daring cross-border raid.
On Thursday, the fighting swelled, and so did the death toll.
On the outskirts of Beit Lahiya, Israeli Apache helicopters circled overhead firing flares and machine guns as Israeli tanks took up positions or maneuvered among tightly packed Palestinian homes.
Troops took over one family's house, locking the inhabitants on the bottom floor of the home and posting snipers on the upper floors. Outside, large armored bulldozers erupted sand embankments to shelter tanks.
Militants, many dressed in black masks, sneaked down narrow alleys to approach the Israeli forces and open fire with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.
Several militants were seen carrying roadside bombs with electric cables to be buried in alleys or near roads and set off as tanks passed by.
During lulls in the fighting, some Palestinian women and young children fled their homes to evacuate the area on foot.
Ali Ajrami, a tailor living in a farm house in Beit Lahiya, was trapped with his nine children in one room after Israeli tanks parked in a garden behind his house and special forces took position on the rooftops of neighboring buildings.
Gunfire could be heard nearby.
"We are trapped. I don't know what to do," he said. Ajrami said he had stocked up food and diesel fuel before the offensive, but was struggling to keep his children indoors.
Twenty Palestinians were killed in air strikes and gun battles throughout the day, including eight Palestinians killed in aerial attacks in the Beit Lahiya area, Palestinian medical officials said.
Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Radi said he didn't know how many civilians were among the dead. Radi said 62 people were wounded, including seven in serious condition, and 20 children. During lulls in the fighting, some Palestinian women and young children fled their homes on foot.
The army said all of its attacks were aimed at militants.
Lt. Col. Yaniv, a battalion commander, said there had been stiff resistance. "The Palestinians have been firing rocket-propelled grenades, automatic weapons and setting off explosive devices," said Yaniv, who gave only his first name under military regulations.
An Israeli soldier died in one of the skirmishes, the first Israeli casualty of the incursion.
The destroyed Gaza settlements that the troops re-entered, Nissanit, Dugit and Elei Sinai, lie just south of the border with Israel. Before Israel dismantled its Gaza communities last year, critics of the withdrawal warned the pullout would put more Israeli cities within rocket range.
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