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IDF troops returning from an operation in the Gaza Strip. (Jini)
Last update - 00:24 18/04/2008
Hanegbi: In light of recent violence IDF must retake Gaza
By Amos Harel and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters
Tags: Jenin, IDF, West Bank, Israel

Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Thursday that in light of recent escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces must reoccupy the territory.

In an interview with Army Radio, Hanegbi said that he meant to establish a strategic goal of toppling the Islamic rulers of the Gaza Strip ? Hamas. In order to achieve this goal, he said, "you must go into the territory and hold on to it for a long time."

Hanegbi confessed that the decision to retake the Strip comes with a "complicated price tag, and has implications for our soldiers' lives as well as in the international arena."
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Earlier Thursday, elite Israel Defense Forces soldiers killed one Palestinian militant and wounded another near the Kerem Shalom Gaza-Israel border crossing, foiling an attempted infiltration and attack.

A third gunman managed to escape the IDF special forces unharmed.

The militants had tried to enter Israel via the crossing, intending to carry out a terror attack, and then engaged in a gunfight with IDF soldiers from the Palestinian side of the Gaza border. There were no reports of casualties among the IDF soldiers.

Troops were still exchanging fire with militants some time after the attempted infiltration.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is used to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The army said the crossing was closed after the incident.

Israel has limited the flow of goods into Gaza since the Hamas militant group seized control of the area last June, and tightened the blockade in recent weeks following intensified rocket attacks from Gaza.

Meanwhile Thursday, one week after the terror attack at the Nahal Oz fuel terminal through which Israel supplies fuel to Gaza, Palestinian gunmen once again opened fire at fuel trucks at the same terminal. The gunmen fired at the trucks as those were transferring fuel into the Strip.

Israel suspended the supply of fuel at the terminal following the terror attack that left two Israeli civilians dead, and partially renewed the supply on Wednesday. Though Israel has designated the fuel it supplies for use in the Gaza power station only, the IDF believe that the militant Hamas rulers are confiscating the fuel for their own personal use, thus diminishing the amount of power available for Gaza residents.

Also Thursday, IDF paratroopers killed two Palestinian militants during a raid near the West Bank city of Jenin.

Palestinian medical and security officials said one of the dead was an Islamic Jihad militant and the other was a 16-year-old boy.

According to Israel Radio, however, the Palestinians were a local commander of the Palestinian militant group and his aide.

The IDF Spokesman's Office also stated that both Palestinians were militants, noting that soldiers found on their bodies an explosive device, an M-16 assault rifle with ammunition and a telescopic sight, night vision equipment and other military supplies.

According to the army, the incident began when IDF paratroopers surrounded a house where militants were holed up in the Kabatiya refugee camp near Jenin, and called on them to exit the building.

After the militants refused to comply, the paratroopers used weapons in efforts to force them out. In an ensuing firefight, according to the IDF, the soldiers shot dead two gunmen whom they identified inside the house.

IDF forces frequently raid West Bank towns in search of militants suspected of involvement in attacks against Israel.

Meanwhile Thursday, a Grad Katyusha rocket and several Qassams struck the western Negev Thursday, as Palestinian militants in Gaza stepped up rocket fire aimed at Israeli communities near Gaza, Israel Radio reported on Thursday.

No injuries or damages were reported in the strikes.

Palestinian militants have fired the longer-range, higher payload Grad rockets on many occasions, with one scoring a direct hit on a residential building in Ashkelon in March, and another rocket injuring 5 civilians in a strike on the city's marina earlier that month.

Thursday's violence came a day after three IDF soldiers from the elite Givati Brigade were killed Wednesday in an exchange of heavy gunfire with Palestinian militants next to the Gaza Strip security fence.

The army named the slain soldiers as Corporal Matan Ovadati, 19, of Moshav Patish, Sergeant David Papian, 21, of Tel Aviv, and Sergeant Menhash al-Banyat, 20, from a Bedouin village in the Negev.

On Wednesday, twenty Palestinians were killed, including a Reuters cameraman, in IDF operations in the Gaza Strip.

Related articles:
  • 2 Israeli civilians killed in attack by Gaza infiltrators
  • Three Israeli soldiers killed in ambush near Gaza border
  • 20 Palestinians killed in string of IDF operations in Gaza Strip
  • IDF soldier moderately wounded by Gazan sniper
  • IDF kills 8 Palestinians, including 2 children, in Gaza
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      1.   War against terrorism. 09:26  |  Jean Van Daem 17/04/08
      2.   Meanwhile, at an important desk in Ramallah 09:38  |  Clickfool 17/04/08
      3.   " during an exchange of fire " "surrounded a house where militant 10:31  |  PETER SM 17/04/08
      4.   "during an exchange of fire" surrounded a house where militants w 10:36  |  PETER SM 17/04/08
      5.   CFOOL No, he praises murderers of Israelis and 10:43  |  PETER SM 17/04/08
      6.   I have never ever used the word "butchering" before..... 10:59  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      7.   TO BOOST ABBAS CREDIBILITY, RIGHT? (2nd TRY, EDITED) 11:15  |  indrajaya 17/04/08
      8.   Swiss affairs 11:20  |  Real Swiss 17/04/08
      9.   Taking your gloves off, eh, Swiss? 11:26  |  Linichka 17/04/08
      10.   For Swiss (Dino) # 6 11:26  |  Clickfool 17/04/08
      11.   swiss dino - one sided view 11:32  |  RNew 17/04/08
      12.   Response to #2 11:35  |  Mike 17/04/08
      13.   Well done IDF, keep hitting `em - hard 11:42  |  Johnny 17/04/08
      14.   US Crude reaches $115 a barrel 11:46  |  Desmond Morris 17/04/08
      15.   swiss dino logic 11:48  |  Rnew 17/04/08
      16.   #3 Two Armed Militants in a House 11:57  |  Douglas Fireman 17/04/08
      17.   ISRAEL = CONSTANTINE 11:58  |  indrajaya 17/04/08
      18.   A CLEAR SIGN OF DEFIANCE TO CARTER 12:03  |  indrajaya 17/04/08
      19.   militants 12:05  |  K 17/04/08
      20.   DINO AND BUTCHERY 12:45  |  Brant 17/04/08
      21.   For Desmond Morris, on the oil price # 14 13:13  |  Clickfool 17/04/08
      22.   Move along, please, nothing to see here 13:18  |  Clickfool 17/04/08
      23.   # 8 Real Swiss 13:48  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      24.   # 9 Linichka and # 11 RNew 13:58  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      25.   Keep up the good work IDF! 14:00  |  Nechama 17/04/08
      26.   # 15 Rnew and his (rather illogical) "logic" 14:01  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      27.   # 20 Brant 14:11  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      28.   stalin 14:37  |  Glober Furrisky 17/04/08
      29.   Militant ? 14:57  |  J.Wattenberg 17/04/08
      30.   #14 desmond and the taxes on crude need to be removed ! 15:03  |  v hardman 17/04/08
      31.   #27 Swiis Dino...a quick question! 15:08  |  DR 17/04/08
      32.   PESACH TO HAARETZ STAFF. 15:09  |  DANNY. UK. 17/04/08
      33.   TO NO 2 CLICKFOOL 15:13  |  DANNY. 17/04/08
      34.   Desmond Morris # 14 The Price Of Oil 15:13  |  Jeff Northridge 17/04/08
      35.   Haaretz, what was wrong with my response to Clickfool....???? 15:16  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      36.   TO JOHNNY IN STOCKHOLM 15:25  |  DANNY 17/04/08
      37.   # 20 Brant....the Swiss media is very 15:35  |  Lynn 17/04/08
      38.   TO NO 20 BRANT GOD BLESS YOU AND A HAPPY PESACH. 15:39  |  DANNY. 17/04/08
      39.   24. 15:42  |  DANNY. 17/04/08
      40.   TO NO 25. 15:43  |  DANNY. 17/04/08
      41.   # 2 Clicky....he is much smarter then you 15:44  |  Lynn 17/04/08
      42.   Swiss (Dino) # 24 What Crimes? (part 1) 15:59  |  Jeff Northridge 17/04/08
      43.   Swiss (Dino) # 24 What Crimes? (part 2) 16:03  |  Jeff Northridge 17/04/08
      44.   swiss donkey still braying? 16:03  |  peter 17/04/08
      45.   ZioNazis 16:05  |  Imad 17/04/08
      46.   You want butchery Dino" How about this 16:09  |  ChanahS 17/04/08
      47.   The judgment of the nations 16:11  |  roger wallace 17/04/08
      48.   23 year old Fadel Shana- Reuters cameraman 16:18  |  Michael 17/04/08
      49.   we do noty intend to lose this one 16:24  |  ummah 17/04/08
      50.   Swiss Dino 16:28  |  DR 17/04/08
      51.   mofaz as 1er minister asap 16:35  |  haim 17/04/08
      52.   Keep Pushing to the Mediterranean 16:36  |  Barak Obamawitz 17/04/08
      53.   Once again the truth gets twisted toserve the unlawful occupiers 16:42  |  Dutch 17/04/08
      54.   The Swiss Butcher 16:48  |  Green Mamba 17/04/08
      55.   The Swiss Butcher 16:48  |  Green Mamba 17/04/08
      56.   Clickfool, Israel vs Great Britain 16:49  |  Sam C 17/04/08
      57.   Clickfool, Israel vs Great Britain 16:49  |  Sam C 17/04/08
      58.   The Swiss Butcher 16:50  |  Green Mamba 17/04/08
      59.   What are those things on their heads??? 16:51  |  Silvienne 17/04/08
      60.   The Swiss Butcher 16:52  |  Green Mamba 17/04/08
      61.   laughing loudly 16:54  |  Sabra 17/04/08
      62.   Swiss cheeesecake Dino 16:55  |  Sabra 17/04/08
      63.   Dear Swiss Dino i guess it was ok when the Hamas terrorists butch 17:04  |  Steve -nyc 17/04/08
      64.   Maybe twisted Dutch, but you already wringed its neck! 17:11  |  Pervert 17/04/08
      65.   Maybe twisted Dutch, but you already wringed its neck! 17:11  |  Pervert 17/04/08
      66.   # 10 Clickfool (99 th try, "kindergarten-version":) 17:12  |  Swiss (Dino) 17/04/08
      67.   Michael # 38 - Suggestion for you 17:13  |  Jason 17/04/08
      68.   Sorry Dutch & the Gang 17:19  |  Honest Observation 17/04/08
      69.   # 32 / # 33 Hi Jeff, very good points you make..... 17:25  |