2 Israeli Troops Killed in Attack

The Israeli government Sunday threatened drastic consequences after a rare cross-border raid by Palestinian militants that left two Israeli soldiers dead and another missing, apparently seized by the attackers.

The capture of an Israeli soldier, which would be the first such abduction by Palestinian militants in a dozen years, sent shock waves through Israel, where most citizens feel a strong familial connection to the army, whether or not they have relatives serving in combat units.

The incident heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions sparked by a recent series of violent incidents in the Gaza Strip, including a campaign of Israeli airstrikes against Palestinian militants that has exacted a growing number of civilian casualties.

The predawn attack Sunday was the first ground assault by Palestinians on a military target inside Israel since its withdrawal last summer from Gaza. It came a day after Israel’s first arrest raid into the seaside strip since the pullout.

The attackers, whom Israel said were members of Hamas’ military wing but Palestinian officials described as members of two splinter groups, tunneled under the fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Armed with automatic rifles, antitank missiles and grenades, the assailants killed two Israeli soldiers and seriously injured a third. Two of the militants also were killed.

Israeli military officials described an audacious operation that appeared to have been well planned. The assault occurred just north of Kerem Shalom, a kibbutz set among grassy flatlands adjacent to the Gaza border fence near Egypt.

Brig. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, who commands the Israeli army division surrounding Gaza, said eight attackers apparently crawled through a tunnel that extended nearly 900 feet into Israel, far enough to allow them to sneak up on Israeli troops from behind. Kochavi, speaking at a briefing held near the scene, said digging the tunnel could have taken months.

After emerging from the tunnel, the militants broke into three groups, the army said. One group attacked an armored personnel carrier that was parked near the border as a decoy. There were no injuries. A second group of gunmen stormed a watchtower, but were spotted by Israeli troops, who opened fire, killing two of them.

The remaining gunmen attacked an Israeli tank, firing an antitank rocket and lobbing explosives. Two members of the tank crew were killed, the army said, and one was gravely wounded. The fourth, later identified by Israeli media as Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, was believed to have been seized by the attackers and taken into the Gaza Strip. The militants cut their way through the fence to return to the Palestinian side.

Following the raid, Israeli forces, backed by two tanks and a helicopter, staged a brief incursion into Gaza to search for the assailants and the missing soldier. Israeli troops this year have entered the territory on several occasions in small numbers for “pinpoint” raids, but refrained from any large-scale ground offensive. Some senior Israeli commanders have publicly urged reoccupying the coastal strip.

Since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, Palestinian militants have lobbed hundreds of homemade rockets toward Israel, terrifying residents, causing some property damage and seriously injuring one Israeli. But until now, the militants had never successfully struck at Israeli troops deployed along the frontier fence.

The violence has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel responding to rocket attacks with airstrikes and shellings aimed at Palestinian militants that have at times killed civilians. An Israeli airstrike June 13 killed 11 Palestinians, nine of them civilians. A blast on a Gaza beach four days earlier had left eight civilians dead and caused Hamas’ military wing to end a cease-fire it had observed for more than a year, though Israeli officials later said that an investigation had shown their forces were not responsible. Hamas later offered to resume the truce.

Israeli military officials said they had “many reasons” to believe Shalit, the soldier captured Sunday, was alive, though almost certainly injured. Israel also made it clear that it regarded the raid itself, together with the seizure of one of its troops, as a major escalation in the confrontation that has simmered since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January.

Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the army’s chief of staff, alleged that Hamas was involved “from head to toe” and would be held responsible. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel would “do everything to return this soldier to his family.”

“We hereby inform all those involved in determining his fate that as far as we are concerned, if any harm befalls this soldier, his blood will be on the hands of anyone involved -- theirs and their leaders,” Peretz said in a terse news conference. “We intend to react to this morning’s incident in a way that will make clear to all those involved ... that the price will be painful.”

The language suggested that Israel was making little or no distinction between Hamas’ military wing and its political leadership, which is in charge of the Palestinian government.

In Gaza, senior Hamas members, including Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar, were reported to have dropped out of sight in the wake of the raid -- a situation reminiscent of the period in 2003 and 2004 when Israel hunted down and killed top Hamas officials, including the group’s spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

Halutz said it was the first time since 1994 that an Israeli soldier had fallen into the hands of Palestinian guerrillas. In that instance, a 19-year-old corporal named Nachshon Waxman was held by Hamas militants and was videotaped pleading for his life. He was killed during an attempted rescue mounted by Israeli troops. The event is still remembered by many Israelis as a national trauma.

It is a central tenet of the Israeli military that soldiers are not left behind on the battlefield. The government has gone to great lengths to recover even the remains of slain troops, handing over large numbers of prisoners to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah in exchange for the bodies of Israeli soldiers held by the group.

Palestinian militants with the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for Sunday’s raid, saying it was meant to avenge Israel’s killing this month of the group’s leader, Jamal abu Samhadana, who was given a senior security post in the Hamas government. A hitherto unknown group calling itself the Islamic Army, described by some Palestinian officials as an offshoot of Hamas’ military wing, also said it had played a role.

The Hamas government said it had no knowledge of the missing soldier and publicly appealed to his captors to refrain from harming him.

“We are calling on the resistance groups, if they do have the missing soldier ... to protect his life and treat him well,” government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.

The incident highlights the diverging interests of the Hamas government, the Islamist group’s military wing and its exiled leadership. Even as the government appealed for a peaceful resolution, a Hamas spokesman defended the attack.

“This operation is a natural response to Israeli crimes and assassinations,” Sami abu Zuhri said.

The raid also presented an unwelcome new complication for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is with the rival Fatah faction. His office issued a statement condemning the raid and said it contradicted Palestinian interests by giving Israel a pretext for a major ground offensive in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened a gathering of senior security advisors to weigh Israel’s response.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip, shutting down the commercial crossing at Karni, the crossing into Egypt at Rafah, and the Erez crossing, through which Palestinians, journalists, aid workers and diplomats pass from Israel.

*

King reported from Jerusalem and Ellingwood from Kerem Shalom. Special correspondent Rushdie abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.