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Israeli tanks, helicopters enter Gaza
GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli forces entered Gaza early Thursday with 50 tanks and two Apache helicopters and moved into three villages, witnesses and Palestinian sources said. The incursion began near Khan Yunis, around 2 a.m. (6 p.m. ET Wednesday), with tanks firing as they rolled into the nearby villages of Abasan, Boni Suhaila and Khuza. Shots were also coming from the helicopters, witnesses said. Palestinian sources said the army was destroying houses in those villages. There is no word yet on casualties. Sources said the only hospital in the area is in the middle of the military operation. The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment. Sunday, Israeli helicopters destroyed a workshop in Khan Yunis. Israel said the workshop was being used to build weapons used in terrorist attacks against Israelis. In southern Gaza, Tuesday, two Palestinian members of Islamic Jihad were killed when they tried to infiltrate the Jewish settlement at Kfar Darom, Israeli military sources said. Palestinian security sources said both men were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group that has pledged the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state. Israeli forces also killed a member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and four other Palestinians during operations Tuesday in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, according to the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian officials. The Al Aqsa member was identified by the Tulkarem governor and local hospital officials as Tareq Zaghal. The IDF said he was a member of the offshoot Tanzim organization. Also killed during the operations were a 13-year-old Palestinian boy who threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli armored vehicle, the IDF said. Palestinian officials said a 42-year-old civilian security guard was killed as well. In addition, two Palestinians were killed when they drove their car through a blockade, tried to run over Israeli soldiers and slammed into a wall, the IDF said. Palestinian officials said 12 others were wounded during the operations, including four children. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on Israelis, including an attack Monday near a West Bank settlement that killed an Israeli mother of seven. It is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
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