Israel Occupies Egypt-Gaza Border Areas

In a first since Israel's pullout from Gaza last summer, Israeli tanks and infantry have taken up positions on the Egypt-Gaza border, killing two Palestinian gunmen and surrounding the Rafah border terminal, as the army broadened its search for arms smuggling tunnels.

Palestinian security officials said Israeli troops and tanks moved into the border town of Rafah before dawn Wednesday and took over a section of the frontier.

The army said Israeli forces were widening the scope of an operation in southern Gaza aimed at uncovering tunnels used by Palestinian militants to smuggle weapons from Egypt. The army said Wednesday it has uncovered five tunnels so far.

Israel has sent forces in and out of Gaza and stepped up airstrikes against suspected militants and weapons caches since Hamas-linked militants tunneled under the border and attacked an Israeli army post, killing two soldiers and captured another, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, in late June.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli troops killed two Hamas militants as they approached army positions in Rafah, the army and Palestinians said. According to a statement from Hamas, one of the two was a senior militant involved in abducting the Israeli soldier, who remains in captivity.

Israel has charged that militants have smuggled large quantities of weapons over and under the border since Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza last summer.

Capt. Noa Meir, an army spokeswoman, said Israel would continue military operations as long as necessary to block the flow of arms, which she said included guns, explosives and anti-tank rockets — into Gaza. "The tunnels are part of a production line meant to kill Israelis, and it's our job to stop it," Meir said.

Briefing reporters during a visit to Moscow, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the operation was limited. "We have no intention of staying anywhere in Gaza," he said.

The Palestinian officials said troops carried out house-to-house searches and bulldozers leveled agricultural land near the border. Troops also surrounded the Rafah border terminal, where about 60 Palestinian security personnel remained, the officials said. The crossing, the only land bridge from Gaza to the outside world without passing through Israel, has been closed most of the time since violence flared in June.

Internal Palestinian violence continued Wednesday against the background of a power struggle between the ruling Islamic Hamas and rival Fatah. A Hamas activist was shot dead as he left a mosque in the West Bank city of Nablus. At a Hamas demonstration later, protesters blamed Fatah and its leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas called a strike in the city for Thursday.

In another development, Israel's Supreme Court said Wednesday a Palestinian student should be allowed to study for a doctorate at Israel's Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The court gave the parties a week to find an agreed solution.

The student, Sawsan Salameh, 29, lives in a West Bank village just a 15-minute drive from the university campus.

Human rights campaigners hope the court will overturn the ban on Palestinian students attending Israeli universities, imposed by the Israeli military in the summer, citing security concerns.

Israel's universities on Wednesday protested the blanket ban and demanded that each student be judged on merit.

In Jerusalem, Israeli police sent in reinforcements to prevent disturbances during Laylat Al Qadr, the holiest night of the sacred month of Ramadan, when tens of thousands of Muslims were expected to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem. Police were allowing Muslims with Israeli ID cards to attend, while banning Palestinian men under the age of 45 and women under 40.