Israel Storms Gaza City

Israeli forces backed by 30 tanks and three helicopters stormed into central Gaza City early Thursday, the deepest incursion into the city in more than two years, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

Soldiers fired machine guns as they penetrated roughly more than a mile into the city from its southern entrance, witnesses said.

The army declined immediate comment.

The army rolled into the central Talalhawa neighborhood, in an area that is home to the headquarters of the Palestinian Preventive Security and the studios of Palestinian state television.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, but at least a dozen ambulances rushed to the area.

The incursion marked the farthest penetration by Israeli forces into the city since renewed fighting erupted between Palestinians and Israelis in the fall of 2000, witnesses said.

In a pre-dawn strike a day earlier, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles on a suspected weapons-making workshop in the city center, the second such strike on the site in two days.

The attack demolished an automotive repair shop whose owner insisted had nothing to do with the manufacture of weapons. Israel said the site was believed to produce mortar shells and rockets like ones used in recent attacks on nearby Israeli communities.

The area has been on edge since a Sunday shooting at an Israeli communal farm in which five people, including two small boys, were killed by a gunman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militia linked to Arafat's Fatah group. The attacker managed to flee the scene.

Earlier Wednesday, a finger-wagging Yasser Arafat warned against any attempt to send him into exile, while Israeli Cabinet ministers repeated calls to drive the Palestinian leader out of the region after the latest attack killed five Israelis.

In the biggest sweep in months, Israeli troops stormed into Nablus in dozens of tanks and armored vehicles, rounding up 30 suspected Palestinian militants. The West Bank's largest city is a hotbed for militants, and troops have been in and out for the past seven months.

The proposal to expel Arafat, backed by several members of Israel's Security Cabinet, failed to win approval Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in a television interview Wednesday that Israel's security chiefs have advised him not to expel Arafat, as demanded by several hard-line ministers in his Cabinet. But he also said the debate would continue.

Sharon also predicted that a Palestinian state will be created after the current round of Mideast violence ends. Asked by Channel 2 TV if he favored creating such a state formally, Sharon replied: "In the end, when terrorism will end ... there will be a political settlement that will also bring this about."

Sharon's comments came after Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged for the second time in two days that Arafat be expelled. Sharon has sought to diminish Arafat's powers and the government has long since halted direct dealings with the Palestinian leader.