Israel attacks 'terrorist infrastructure'

Thousands of mourners carry the green-wrapped bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli incursions into the Jabaliya refugee camp.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli soldiers Tuesday scoured the West Bank and Gaza to root out what they call the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure" in the largest Israeli military operation since the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Palestinian leaders denounced the incursions and said they would only lead to more violence. More than 30 Palestinian deaths have been reported from fighting in the refugee camps and elsewhere.

A terror attack Tuesday also killed six Israelis motorists in northern Israel near the Lebanon border. A seventh Israeli was shot dead in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Israeli television reported that 20,000 Israeli troops were engaged in operations in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel Defense Forces would not confirm the number of soldiers involved, but said the military was waging a battle against terrorists.

Israeli Army Col. Gal Hirsch called the operation a success so far. "We have found many explosives, we've found many bombs ready on their way to the main populated areas of Israel," he said.

"We found a lot of ammunition, rifles, revolvers, machine guns. And we're fighting against terrorists wherever we went to."

Palestinian leaders said the Israelis' raids would only worsen matters.

"This is leading to a real open war between the army of occupation and us. We have called upon all the Palestinians to resist this occupation and to confront it," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, the Palestinian information minister.

VIDEO CNN's Sheila MacVicar has more Israel's military operation against the Palestinian Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza. (March 12) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

As Israeli troops moved into the camps to round up men for questioning -- an operation that began Monday -- they faced fierce resistance.

The clashes were particularly deadly in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, where 17 Palestinians were killed after a late Monday night incursion, and in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where intense fighting raged into Tuesday afternoon and five Palestinians were killed.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also reported many more were wounded in Gaza and the West Bank.

In the El Amari refugee camp in the West Bank, heavy gunfire and shelling could be heard as helicopters circled overhead.

The Israeli offensive comes against a backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to quell the violence in the region. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Jordan Tuesday where he discussed the crisis with King Abdullah. (Full story)

The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Anthony Zinni, is expected to arrive in the region Thursday.

Annan: Israeli occupation 'illegal'

The Israeli operation prompted a sharp rebuke from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who criticized the Israeli government's use of heavy weaponry in civilian areas.

He called on the government to end its "illegal occupation" of Palestinian territory and "the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians."

Annan, addressing the U.N. Security Council, was also critical of the Palestinians. He told them the "deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilians is morally repugnant" and said acts of terror and suicide bombings were doing "immense harm" to their cause. (Full story)

The bloodshed was not confined to the camps nor to the Palestinians.

Israeli security sources said at least six Israelis and two assailants were killed and six others wounded, one critically, in northern Israel Tuesday in a terror attack on motorists by gunmen disguised in Israeli army uniforms.

The attack took place near the town of Shlomi, not far from the Lebanese border, according to Israeli military sources.

Lebanese security sources denied shots were fired into northern Israel from its side of the border. The Hezbollah guerrilla organization also denied responsibility for any operation against Shlomi.

An Israeli was killed and another wounded in a separate incident in the Ramallah area, according to Israeli medical sources, who said the victims came under fire while working on a road.

Israel on the offensive

Israel's new offensive followed recent terror attacks by Palestinians. Last weekend, 13 Israelis were killed in two attacks that came at the end of the Jewish Sabbath.

Ra-anan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said the incursions were needed "to uproot the terrorists from their camps."

The military operations would serve to remind terrorists that "there is no sanctuary and no safe haven," Gissin said.

One Israeli military source said the operation was partly in response to the "threat of Qassam" rocket attacks. Israel sees the use of the homemade rockets as a dangerous escalation of conflict because they have the range to reach major Israeli population centers from the Palestinian territories. (Qassam fact sheet)

But Hasan Abdel Rahman, the chief Palestinian representative to the United States, said Israel had gone too far.

"If Israel believes that terrorizing the Palestinian people is going to bring more security to Israel, it is the opposite," he told CNN. The Israel offensive, he added, was "pushing more people to become radicalized."

In a sign of just how bitter tensions are in Ramallah -- the center of the Palestinian Authority -- the body of a Palestinian man killed earlier after being accused of collaborating with Israel was on display in the town's main square.

The fighting in Ramallah raged for hours, with the pops of gunfire echoing through the streets and tank shelling rattling buildings. Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who lives in a compound in the town, was not hurt, sources said.

In other incidents Tuesday: