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Israeli forces enter, leave Gaza
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli helicopters, troops and tanks mounted a large incursion into Gaza Wednesday night but withdrew after about an hour, witnesses said. The incursion began at Netzarim settlement and moved toward Gaza. It involved about 30 tanks and armored personnel carriers with air support from helicopter gunships, witnesses said. Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops picked up two members of a family, both of whom are members of the military wing of Hamas. Then the troops withdrew and headed back to Netzarim. Hamas is labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Witnesses said two Palestinian security officers were wounded in the incursion. A message on loudspeakers from mosques urged people to go into the streets. Normally, residents are told to stay inside their homes when the Israeli army conducts an incursion. The action followed the arrests of 30 Palestinians by the Israel Defense Forces earlier in the day in and around Nablus in the northern West Bank. The action came after a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis at a nearby kibbutz Sunday, including a woman and her two sons. "IDF forces are operating against terror targets ... in the area of Samaria, including the city Nablus, the refugee camps adjacent to the city and in the village of Bir Zeit north of Ramallah," IDF said in a statement. The IDF said it believed the weekend attack on Kibbutz Metzer near the West Bank was planned in Nablus. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. A Fatah source said one of those arrested is a senior member of the brigades. Israeli military sources said most of those arrested are members of Hamas. The group's military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, has admitted responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military. Palestinian sources said IDF troops entered the Balata refugee camp, southeast of Nablus, temporarily occupying more than 20 houses. Israeli and Palestinian sources reported some fierce fighting in the refugee camp but overall the IDF said resistance was light. One Israeli military vehicle burned, Palestinian sources said. In Gaza City early Wednesday, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired four missiles at a metal workshop, the same target of an Israeli helicopter attack early Monday, witnesses said. The IDF said the workshop was used "by various terrorist organizations." A fifth missile fell into a nearby cemetery. There were no apparent injuries. Palestinian security forces were on the scene, witnesses said. After the workshop was struck Monday, the IDF said the strike was in response to "recent terror attacks in the Gaza Strip and to the recent firings of mortar bombs toward Israeli communities." Elsewhere in Gaza Wednesday, Palestinian medical officials said a 3-year old Palestinian boy was killed in Rafah and his mother was seriously wounded by Israeli tank rounds. No other details were immediately available. There was no immediate response to the report from the IDF. CNN Producer Riad Ali in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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