BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip -Israeli tanks and bulldozers pulled back from this Palestinian town yesterday after tearing up roads, flattening greenhouses and knocking down dozens of houses in a devastating two-day raid, part of Israel's expanding invasion of the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli offensive is in its third week, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told legislators yesterday that the campaign would continue and even be broadened.
Since the Sept. 29 start of the offensive, triggered by a deadly Palestinian rocket attack on an Israeli town, 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire, including 18 under the age of 16.
Five armed Palestinians and an elderly civilian were killed in three separate missile strikes, starting Wednesday evening. Witnesses said Israeli aircraft yesterday fired two more missiles at targets in the Jebaliya refugee camp.
Sharon told parliament's Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee that one objective of the campaign was to ensure calm during Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. When asked to clarify, however, he said he was not making an end to Palestinian attacks a prerequisite for the withdrawal.
Sharon also said Jewish settlers in Gaza would be removed from their homes by summer. Israel Radio initially quoted him as saying the removal would begin in May. However, participants in the closed-door meeting said Sharon was not that specific.
Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets and mortars at Israeli border areas and Jewish settlements in Gaza. Israeli military commentators wrote yesterday that while an offensive might appease Israeli public opinion, it would not stop rocket fire.
For the past two weeks, hundreds of armored vehicles have patrolled a five-mile stretch of northern Gaza, including the towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and the Jebaliya refugee camp. At times, tanks remained on the outskirts, and at times they moved deep into densely populated areas.
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