GAZA CITY, 5 June 2007 — Israeli tanks and troops pushed deep into the southern Gaza Strip yesterday targeting Palestinian fighters in the first such ground operation in the area in months.
Soldiers took over two buildings and military bulldozers ripped up roads during the incursion around the town of Rafah, about two kilometers inside Palestinian territory, witnesses said.
The Israeli Army said troops had detained a number of Palestinians for questioning. The operation was limited in time, an army spokeswoman said, and the military had no plans to permanently capture territory inside Gaza.
Yesterday, the Palestinian government approved a proposal for an overall truce among the rival Palestinian factions and between the Palestinians and Israel, Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti announced at a news conference in Ramallah.
But the cease-fire proposal Barghouti detailed included the West Bank — an idea Israel has consistently rejected as that would allow fighters there to regroup and increase attacks.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military court ordered yesterday that two Palestinian ministers and a member of Parliament from Hamas be held without charge for six months, their lawyers said.
The court in Jalameh prison near the northern city of Haifa placed Education Minister Nasser Al-Shaer, Minister of State Wasfi Qabaha and MP Abdul Rahman Zeidan in administrative detention for six months, the lawyers said.
An army spokeswoman confirmed the detention orders against the three politicians, whose arrests last month drew rare criticism from Israel’s key ally, the United States.
She said the three detained politicians posed a “clear and present danger to the region and its inhabitants” but declined to elaborate on the allegations against them.
The Palestinian government condemned the continued detention of the three men and accused Israel of attempting to “sabotage the Palestinian political system.” Administrative detainees can be held without charge for an indefinite period, although their detention orders need periodic renewal by the military courts.
The trio were arrested along with 31 other senior Hamas officials in the occupied West Bank as part of a crackdown that Israel launched against Hamas nearly three weeks ago in response to increased rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
The US State Department said the arrests of Palestinian elected officials raised “particular concern” while France condemned the Israeli action.
— With input from agencies
