Gaza crisis explodes as Israeli forces launch massive operation

Israel has launched an all-out assault on the Gaza Strip following the abduction of one of its soldiers by Palestinian militants in a cross border raid on an Israeli army post. The June 25 kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit sparked a massive response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including scores of air strikes, the arrest of over 60 Hamas government ministers, and a series of IDF incursions into the Gaza Strip. Israeli artillery fire–suspended on June 9 after seven members of a Palestinian family were killed on a beach in Gaza–resumed in force, with hundreds of rounds fired every day from the land and sea. The Israeli military said it had fired 1,500 shells since the operation began and carried out more than 40 air strikes. In the early hours of June 28 after Israeli warplanes targeted the main power station in Gaza, thousands of Israeli troops and armored vehicles poured into Gaza, taking over the airport and setting up positions about three miles inside the strip, around the town of Rafah. At the northern tip of Gaza, thousands more Israeli troops sat waiting for the order to move. Israeli missiles hit two empty Hamas training camps, a rocket-building factory and several roads. Warplanes flew low over the coastal strip, rocking it with sonic booms and shattering windows. IDF bulldozers also moved in to clear agricultural land in northern Gaza, witnesses said, apparently so Palestinians couldn't hide there. The push by troops and tanks into southern Gaza met with little real resistance, but in Gaza's north, militants built emplacements and laid homemade explosives in preparation for battle. Rival gunmen with Hamas and Fatah appeared to have patched up their differences, teaming up on patrols and dividing positions to be defended. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, the body of an 18-year-old Israeli settler, Eliahu Asheri, was found. The Palestinian Resistance Committees, another of the groups responsible for the IDF soldier's abduction, had claimed to have kidnapped Asheri, who was found with a gunshot to the back of his head. IDF troops arrested dozens of Hamas officials in the West Bank the following day. Israeli officials said the operation was launched against the organization because of their involvement in a "terrorist organization." A total of 64 Hamas officials were arrested in the early morning round-up. Of those, seven were ministers in Hamas' 23-member cabinet and 20 others were officials in the 72-seat parliament. An IDF spokeswoman said the arrests were part of an operation against suspected terrorists, and were not "bargaining chips" for the release of the abducted soldier. The detentions drew expressions of international concern, and even Hamas' rival, the Fatah faction, weighed in with sharp criticism, calling the arrests an effort by Israel to topple the Palestinian administration. Israeli military aircraft fired missiles at the Interior Ministry headquarters in Gaza City on June 30, setting the building ablaze. An army spokesman said the ministry, headed by Saed Siyam of Hamas, was being used "for the planning and carrying out of terrorist activities." Siyam's office was struck directly. Israeli air strikes also hit several other targets the following day, including the headquarters of a new Interior Ministry militia dominated by Hamas members and a building that military officials said was used by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Fatah party's armed wing. Missiles also struck roads in the north and south of the strip, some landing near a key bridge that had already been hit earlier in the week. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Israeli missiles also hit a training camp in the Jabaliya refugee camp belonging to a controversial Hamas-run police force. A man believed to be a member of the unit was reported killed. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile into the office of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on July 2. He was not in the four-story building at the time of the attack, which injured three security guards. Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian gunmen near the Gaza airport, two of whom were allegedly armed with explosives. The armed wing of Hamas threatened to retaliate by resuming attacks inside Israel, predicting the region would sink in a "sea of blood" if the Israeli offensive continued. The three militant factions holding the IDF soldier have now demanded that women and minors held in Israeli jails be released but also that another 1,000 "Palestinian, Arab and Muslim" prisoners be freed in exchange for his safe return. Israel insisted it would accept only his "unconditional" release. Some analysts suggested that the new military offensive, dubbed "Summer Rains," already has taken on a wider significance than freeing the abducted soldier. Those expanded goals now include stopping Palestinians from firing Qassam rockets into Israel from northern Gaza, journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff wrote in the Israeli daily Haaretz newspaper. "Shalit is the symbol, the justification for the planned Israeli attack, but the kidnapping is being exploited for a much broader campaign: ending Qassam fire on Sderot, undermining the status of Hamas' Damascus [Syria] headquarters, and later, maybe even toppling the Hamas government," they wrote. Others have accused Israel of using the capture of one soldier–at a time when the Israeli government holds 8,503 Palestinians in prison–to stage an attack that would do little to free him. Egypt has taken the lead in trying to find some compromise, but according to news media reports, it has been frustrated by apparent divisions inside Hamas, split into parts in Gaza and in Syria, where its political leader, Khaled Mashaal, lives. In Cairo, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa criticized the "paralysis" of the UN Security Council, charging that Arab efforts to end the standoff "have come to nothing because of the international body's slowness to act." US Ambassador John Bolton said that the UN Security Council should "tread cautiously" to avoid exacerbating tensions, trying to deflect a resolution condemning Israel. The Bush administration has kept up its pressure on Hamas, saying the Palestinian government must "stop all acts of violence and terror" while urging Israel to show restraint.