Eight Palestinians and one Israeli soldier killed

Source: AP, 1-11-2006
Israeli troops, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed at least six Palestinian militants today in one of the military`s largest strikes since re-entering the Gaza Strip over the summer.
An Israeli soldier also was killed in the operation against rocket launchers in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, the army said.
Despite the large-scale action, "Israel" decided today not to expand its four-month-old military offensive in Gaza, even though Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had said earlier in the week that a broader operation was in the works.
Infantry, tanks and aircraft pummeled Beit Hanoun, which the military said was a staging ground for launching 300 rockets at "Israel" since the beginning of the year. Two homemade rockets fired from elsewhere in Gaza fell in the southern Israeli town of Sderot today, slightly injuring one person, the army said.
Palestinian hospital officials reported 33 wounded, most of them gunmen, but including a woman and an 11-year-old boy.
Dr Jamil Suleiman, director of the Beit Hanoun hospital, said all of the hospital`s blood supplies had been used up.
"Israel", which evacuated Gaza in September 2005, re-entered the coastal strip to try to recover a soldier captured in June by militants linked to the Palestinians` ruling Hamas party. The soldier remains in captivity, but the military has since broadened its objectives in Gaza to crush militants` rocket-launching capabilities.
An army spokesman said the operation on Wednesday was one of the largest in Gaza since the offensive began in late June.
But an inner Cabinet of ministers decided not to escalate "Israel`s" offensive against rocket launchers and arms smuggling operations along the Egypt-Gaza border. On Monday, Olmert had told parliament`s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense (War) Committee that the military incursion would be widened.
Government spokewoman Miri Eisin said the inner Cabinet reserved the right to conduct a large-scale operation in the future, but would have to meet again to approve one.
The office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement condemning Wednesday`s operation and urging the international community to take action to halt the incursion.
Hamas government spokesman Ghazi Hamad accused "Israel" of deliberately keeping Gaza mired in chaos to give itself "a green light in order to continue aggression against our people." Hamad also urged the international community "to take a serious step to stop this crazy attack from the Israeli side."
The monthlong war between "Israel" and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas dealt another setback, causing Olmert to shelve his plan to withdraw unilaterally from much of the West Bank. And the expansion of the Israeli government this week to include an ultrahawkish party made a new peace drive unlikely anytime soon.