GAZA, 19 November 2002 — Israel blew up buildings in a tank and helicopter gunship raid on a Palestinian security base in Gaza City yesterday injuring several Palestinians and threatening US efforts to keep the region calm as it prepares for a possible military action in Iraq.

Israeli combat helicopters fired rockets and machine guns at the preventive security building in the southern Tal El-Hawa district of Gaza City, hitting it by rocket at least twice, Palestinian security sources said. Then some 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, accompanied by a bulldozer, moved in just before midnight and encircled it. The bulldozer demolished the perimeter wall before the tanks rolled in through the breach and fired at the targeted building, the Palestinian sources said.

The building was partially destroyed and six nearby buildings were damaged. Four Palestinians — three policemen and a cameraman — were wounded by the Israeli Army during the operation, they said, adding that there had been a brief exchange of fire. During the raid the army also destroyed the house of a Palestinian they had arrested two days earlier, they said.

Palestinian security sources said two of the men seized were the heads of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Fatah offshoot, in the city. They said Nasser Bedawi, 36, and Rayed Rowash, 27, were arrested in Nablus’ Balata refugee camp. Tensions have risen since the ambush which killed 12 Israeli soldiers and settler security guards on Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli Radio quoted Sharon as saying during a visit to Hebron on Sunday that Israel should create “territorial continuity” between Hebron and the adjacent settlement of Kiryat Arba, where Friday’s attack took place. Israeli political sources said the idea involved creating a secure “corridor” for travel between the settler enclaves inside Hebron. Such a move could entail razing Palestinian homes, a measure sure to put Sharon at odds with his key ally, the United States.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat voiced alarm at Israel’s plan to tighten its grip on Hebron by building corridors for Jewish settlers. “This is a big crime,” Arafat said about the proposal.

Brig. Yisrael Ziv of the Israeli Army told Reuters a Qassam missile, a makeshift weapon that Palestinians fire at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and towns just across the Israeli border, as well as explosives were discovered in one of the buildings razed by the army.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli troops pulled out of the neighborhood before dawn. Saeb Erekat, Palestinian Cabinet minister, said the Israeli government has a plan to destroy the peace process, the Palestinian Authority and to maintain the Israeli occupation.

Meanwhile, Israeli troops arrested 12 Palestinians during a security sweep throughout the West Bank overnight.

Seven Palestinians were arrested in Doura, near Hebron, three in Nablus, one near Bethlehem and another north of Tulkarm, the statement said.