Bloody day in Gaza takes 29 lives
Israeli military operation follows Palestinian rocket attack
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The death toll reached 29 in Gaza Thursday as Israeli troops fought pitched battles with Palestinian militants in an attempt to stop rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.
An Israeli Apache helicopter fired missiles near Jabalya, killing a member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and wounding four others, according to Palestinian security and medical sources.
Israel Defense Forces said the helicopter fired on six militants carrying rocket-propelled grenades.
At least 26 Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in fighting in areas of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya and Jabalya in northern Gaza.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian Qassam rocket fired from Gaza hit a street in the Israeli town of Sderot near the Gaza border, killing a 2-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother.
The attack also wounded 15 people, the Israeli military said.
The IDF said it is "determined to act" against the Palestinian "terrorist infrastructure" and a top Palestinian official said "there are massacres going on now in Gaza."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "ordered the defense establishment to continue an ongoing operation and to put pressure on those firing Qassam rockets," an Israeli government official said.
"There was an escalation," the official said. "Children are being killed."
"This is not an invasion of Gaza," the official told CNN. "We are in all these places to push them back, and that's what the army is doing. It's called to put pressure on the whole field."
The official said Israel is "not going to re-occupy Gaza. We want to disengage, but we will not disengage under the fire of Qassam rockets. If there is going to be firing, it's going to be on the terrorists."
In the day's worst single incident, 10 Palestinians were killed and 20 others were wounded, many of them critically, when an Israeli tank shell was fired into a crowd of militants and civilians near a marketplace in Jabalya, Palestinian security officials said. They said women and children were among the wounded.
Israeli military sources said initially a tank had fired at militants trying to lay explosives at the market place. Later, Israeli military sources said three soldiers in an armored vehicle were lightly injured by an explosive device activated from an area near a market.
Shortly afterward, they said, militants fired an anti-tank missile at troops from the same area. An Israeli tank then fired a tank shell at the source of the fire, the military sources said.
Palestinian sources said Israeli troops had destroyed 15 houses in the Jabalya refugee camp.
A senior Hamas commander called CNN Thursday afternoon to say his group was ready to stop the Qassam rocket attacks if Israeli troops would pull out of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahya and Jabalya.
Palestinian sources said among those killed in the northern Gaza fighting were at least six fighters belonging to the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. They said two civilians -- a 65-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy -- were also among the dead.
Izzedine al Qassam has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians as well as attacks against the Israeli military. Israel and the U.S. State Department consider Hamas a terrorist organization, though it also operates an extensive social services network in the territories.
Three Israelis die in two clashes
As Thursday began, an Israeli soldier and two Palestinian militants were killed in an exchange of gunfire near the Jabalya refugee camp, Israeli army and Palestinian security sources said.
Two other soldiers were wounded in the shootout -- one critically and one slightly.
According to Israeli sources, the militants approached an army post and opened fire on the soldiers there.
In another deadly encounter, Israeli military sources said two Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a jogger near the Jewish settlement of Eley Sinai, which is near the Jabalya refugee camp.
According to Israeli sources, Palestinian militants opened fire on an Israeli woman jogging in the settlement, killing her. An Israeli army medic was killed when he attempted to go to the aid of the woman.
Palestinian security sources said two Palestinian gunmen were killed in a subsequent firefight.
