Israeli Tanks Enter Palestinian-Controlled Area in Gaza StripIsraeli tanks entered a Palestinian-controlled area near a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip Thursday afternoon and shelled a police headquarters there, an Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed.The spokeswoman announced in a statement that the operation was carried out in the wake of Thursday morning's mortar attacks by Palestinian militants against Jewish settlements in the area. A residential house in the settlement of Kfar Darom was damaged by the mortar shelling but nobody was wounded. Israeli tanks fired six shells towards the Palestinian National Security Headquarters "responsible for the area from which the mortar bombs were fired," said the statement. There were no casualties among Israeli soldiers, and the tanks left the Area A, which is under total control of the Palestinians, immediately upon completion of the operation, the statement added. Palestinian sources said that the tanks penetrated at least 100 meters into Area A and seven Palestinians were wounded during the incursion and the ensuing gun battles. Israel has now obviously adopted a new policy in the Gaza Strip to make immediate response to every Palestinian mortar attack. Since the Israeli-Palestinian violence erupted last September, Israel has repeatedly entered into Area A to show its military strength. Over 700 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in the nearly 11 months of clashes between the two sides. |
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