Israelis smash Palestinian police post in Gaza

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli troops crossed the border into southern Gaza on Wednesday, destroying a Palestinian border police outpost, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.

But Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres denied the move was connected to Tuesday's temporary occupation of a section of northern Gaza.

Israel Defense Forces said the military carried out a "pinpoint strike" on a target in Gaza and withdrew to Israel. Israel has carried out such operations on several occasions in the past.

Eyewitnesses reported three tanks and a bulldozer crossed into Gaza and rumbled toward the police outpost.

When news of the strike first surfaced, Peres told CNN reports that Israel had occupied or bulldozed the police post were "totally unfounded."

"The Israeli withdrawal was complete," Peres told CNN moments after the report, adding that "as things stand now, I don't think" the Israelis will return to Palestinian-controlled territories.

Hours earlier, mortars were fired at Israeli targets in Gaza after troops were withdrawn from Palestinian-controlled territory in the north of Gaza, according to the Israeli army.

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An army spokeswoman said no one was injured by three mortar shells which landed in the Neve Dekalim settlement in southern Gaza, and three more near an army brigade headquarters in the north.

Israeli troops occupied a mile-square area of northeast Gaza on Tuesday with the avowed aim of stopping such attacks. The action was triggered by a mortar attack on a town 5 kilometers (3 miles) inside the Israeli-Gaza border.

But the move drew heavy criticism from both Arab nations and the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, while acknowledging that Palestinian mortar attacks on Israel were "provocative," labeled the Israeli incursion an "excessive and disproportionate" response.

Withdrawal complete by dawn Wednesday

The occupied area included the village of Beit Hanoun, where the Israelis said the mortar attacks had originated, with soldiers also deployed along the road from Karni to Netzarim and in points near Gush Katif.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli generals had said that their troops could occupy the area "for months" but by nightfall the rhetoric was being toned down and a withdrawal announced.

"When Israel announced its operation, it said it was a limited operation. It did not announce it was reoccupying parts of the Gaza Strip from which it had withdrawn," Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told CNN.

Asked if Washington's criticism played a part in the withdrawal, Gold said: "We pay very close attention to statements made by the United States and they're very important to us."

However, Raanan Gissin, an aide to Sharon, said Wednesday that the decision to withdraw had been made Tuesday morning, before Powell issued his statement.

The withdrawal was completed before dawn on Wednesday, a military spokesman said.

The Islamic militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the mortar attack on Sderot, a working class town of 24,000 in the Negev Desert on Monday. But Israel blamed Palestinian security forces for the mortar fire.

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Israel Defense Forces
Palestinian National Authority

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