GAZA CITY, 20 July 2006 — Launching a new ground incursion into the central Gaza Strip yesterday and a raid at the Palestinian security headquarters in the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli troops killed at least 13 Palestinians, hospital officials said.
The troops advanced toward the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza, sparking clashes with local gunmen and killing at least 10. Israel used a helicopter gunship which fired one missile, tank shelling and machine-gun fire in clashes with the fighters.
Tanks and armored vehicles drove into eastern Mughazi in the early morning and soldiers took up positions on the rooftops of several houses, witnesses said.
Five Israeli soldiers were also injured, two of them moderately, in the fighting in the area and the troops continued to deploy throughout the day. The latest incursion into central Gaza is part of a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip launched after the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier from an army post bordering Gaza. But the Israeli action, which has seen dozens of fighters and civilians killed, has in recent days been overshadowed by Israel’s mass offensive against Lebanon.
In the West Bank, about 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles drove into the northern city of Nablus and surrounded the city’s governorate and security headquarters complex in pursuit of Palestinians holed up within.
Army bulldozers began to demolish the outside walls of the main prison in the Muqataa complex.
Heavy clashes erupted with Palestinian security guards, killing at least three people, hospital officials said. About 200 Palestinian security men who were inside the complex gave themselves up after a long siege punctuated by exchanges of fire.
In Ramallah, meanwhile, an army unit also besieged the governor’s headquarters and arrested seven people, including five guards and two policemen. And in the Israeli city of Hod Hasharon, northeast of Tel Aviv, police nabbed a suspected Palestinian bomber, after a manhunt which saw roadblocks in the area.
— With input from agencies
