Israelis Buzz Home Of Syrian Leader

Tensions escalated Wednesday evening as the Israeli warplanes flew over the home of Syrian President Bashar Assad, officials said Wednesday, in a message aimed at pressuring the Syrian leader to win the release of a captured Israeli soldier.

The officials said four warplanes flew over a residence belonging to Assad in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia in northwestern Syria. Israeli television reports said Assad was home at the time.

The officials said Assad was targeted because of the "direct link" between Syria and Hamas, the militant group holding the soldier in the Gaza Strip. Syria hosts Khaled Meshaal, the exiled supreme leader of Hamas.

Syria said its air defenses fired at Israeli jets flying over the president's house, forcing them to flee.

Late Wednesday, Israeli tanks shelled the northern Gaza Strip and helicopters hovered overhead, stepping up a military operation aimed at freeing the captive soldier.

Dozens of Palestinian militants, armed with grenades and automatic weapons, took up positions near sandpiles and barricades in anticipation of an Israeli ground operation.

Israeli defense officials said they planned to order residents in the border town of Beit Hanoun and nearby Beit Lahia to leave their homes. But they said there were no immediate plans for ground forces to enter the area.

The Israeli military also fired artillery near Gaza City — the first time Israel has targeted that area during the offensive. There were no reports of injuries or damage, and the army said it was testing artillery units and had not fired at a specific target.

Earlier Israeli aircraft hit a power station, knocking out electricity to most of Gaza's 1 million residents, reports , hoping to pressure Palestinian militants to free a soldier they captured Sunday. The air force also destroyed three bridges to prevent militants holding the captive Israeli soldier from moving him, and an empty Hamas training camp. Tanks and troops have also moved in on the ground and have surrounded the southern town of Rafah, near where it's believed Cpl. Gilad Shalit is being held.

Complicating matters is a second Israeli being held by the Hamas-linked Popular Resistance Committees, one of the three groups that carried out Sunday's assault: An 18-year-old Israeli who disappeared on the West Bank apparently while hitchhiking on Sunday evening, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar.

Eliahu Asheri's captors have produced a copy of his identification card, and say that they will kill him unless Israel departs from Gaza quickly.

And Wednesday, a Palestinian group aligned with President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, said it had abducted another Israeli, a 62-year-old man. Israeli police confirm the man is the subject of a missing person case.

Hamas and Fatah have been at odds ever since Hamas defeated Fatah, which had led the Palestinians for decades, in elections earlier this year. Abbas and Fatah have seemed more moderate and conciliatory toward Israel.

"We are still exerting maximum effort in order to locate the soldier, and bring him out alive," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, a member of Fatah, said Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli Web sites came under attack Wednesday, in apparent retaliation for the Gaza incursion. Clicking on a range of sites belonging to banks, medical centers, auto manufacturers, pension plans and others yielded the message "Hacked by Team-Evil Arab hackers u KILL palestin people we KILL Israel servers." The sites were down for several hours.

No casualties have been reported from the Israeli offensive.

The militants who seized Shalit have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian women and youths held in Israeli jails in exchange for information about the captured soldier, and Wednesday, for the first time, the Hamas-led Palestinian government Wednesday called for a prisoner swap with Israel, saying the Gaza offensive would not secure the soldier's release.

Many of the militants and suicide bombers have been younger than 18 years of age.

"This has been exercised by previous Israeli governments with Hezbollah and the PLO, and this is what other countries do in conflict situations," the Palestinian Information Ministry said.

However, before the offer was made, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not make a deal.

It was Israel's first ground offensive since it pulled all of its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer, and Palestinians, holed up at home, were bracing for a major strike. Olmert said Israel wouldn't balk at "extreme action" to bring the soldier home, but had no intention of reoccupying Gaza.

Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity," and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said. "All the military activity that started overnight will continue in the coming days."

"We do not intend to reoccupy Gaza. We do not intend to stay there. We have one objective, and that is to bring Gilad home," he added.

Shalit was taken captive on Sunday during a Palestinian attack on a military post in southern Israel.

Although it's believed the captive corporal is in Rafah, Israel has no plans to enter that city, Maj.Gen. Yoav Gallant told reporters Wednesday. The army feels it has sufficient control of the southern Gaza Strip.

Troops have entered Ramallah, however, looking for Asheri.

Asheri, like many Israeli youths, was hitchhiking in the disputed territories when he disappeared. Because of the danger, the Israeli military recently agreed to start a bus service for settlers — but it won't start until next week.