GAZA CITY, 13 July 2007 — Israel lost its first soldier in combat in nine months yesterday in a confrontation with Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist group seized control over rival Palestinian factions a month ago.
In the clash, which fell on the anniversary of the start of Israel’s war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas a year ago, two other soldiers and two Palestinian gunmen of the Islamic Jihad group also were wounded.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Israel would continue to fight the fighters in Gaza, where Israel has stepped up invasions to isolate Hamas’ rulers who refuse to recognize Israel and bar gunmen from firing rockets at the Jewish state. “The terrorists in Gaza are the enemies of the future hopes between us and the Palestinians,” Olmert said.
An Israeli military statement said the soldier, the first Israeli killed in combat since November, was killed in a raid on militant targets in central Gaza. Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades, said its gunmen ambushed the Israeli troops raiding the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, by detonating explosives and firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
Israel withdrew its forces and Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2005 but has pressed on with raids, particularly since Hamas’ rout on June 14 of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ secular Fatah forces. Nabil Amr, a spokesman for Abbas, criticized the Israeli raid in Gaza, saying the Palestinian administration in the West Bank “totally rejected and condemned” it.
Despite the violence, Olmert planned to meet Abbas on Monday for a second round of talks since the Palestinian leader established his new, emergency administration last month, an Israeli official told Reuters. Olmert himself confirmed during a visit to northern Israel close to the Lebanese border that he would meet Abbas “early next week” to discuss political issues and Israel’s pledge to release 250 Fatah members from its jails.
Hamas boycotted the opening of the Palestinian Parliament’s new term, effectively allowing Abbas to keep his moderate emergency Cabinet in power. The boycott deprived the Parliament of the required quorum Wednesday, preventing the Hamas-led legislature from voting against the Cabinet that Abbas assembled after Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip last month.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has postponed a trip to the Middle East next week but will still visit Ghana and Portugal, a US official said yesterday.
The US official, who asked not to be identified because the decision had not been announced, said the stops in Jerusalem and Ramallah were expected to be added to a Mideast trip Rice now plans in early August.
