4 Die as Israeli Tank Hits Buried Bomb

An Israeli tank was lumbering on a well-worn patrol route around a Jewish settlement early Saturday when it tripped a massive bomb buried in the sand, killing four soldiers.

The force of the blast in the northern Gaza Strip set off the tank’s ammunition, which trapped the young men inside the blazing tank. Palestinian witnesses in a nearby village said secondary explosions crackled for more than an hour while thick white smoke poured into the sky.

Soldiers hosed the flaming tank with water and tried to use armored bulldozers to reach the trapped troops, to no avail. The tank burned for hours, and it was midmorning by the time rescuers managed to pry open the vehicle and remove the bodies.

“Rescue forces first tried to deal with the fire, then took what was left of these people from the tank,” army spokesman Maj. Assaf Librati said. “It looks like the force of the explosion didn’t give them any chance.”

Palestinians say the tanks rumble regularly in rings around Dugit, a small coastal outpost whose boundary is near the Palestinian village of Beit Lahiya.

“They’ve been collecting intelligence, following our moves and following our forces,” said an army spokeswoman, who said she was prevented by military policy from giving her name. “These kind of things are planned for a very long time.”

In a testament to the congestion of Gazan warfare, Palestinian resistance groups jostled to take credit for planting the bomb -- and Israeli soldiers soon turned up a second large explosive sunk into the sand nearby.

The militant group Hamas quickly boasted that it had carried out the attack on the “Zionist tank” and released a video to back up its claim.

The bomb was vengeance for the deaths of two Palestinian resistance fighters shot by Israeli soldiers last week, it said. “We confirm that our resistance and jihad will continue,” the statement read.

Meanwhile, the groups Fatah and Islamic Jihad issued a joint statement claiming the strike as theirs.

Saturday’s blast was the fourth time in a year that Israeli tanks have rolled over Palestinian booby traps planted in the soil of the Gaza Strip. And as soldiers hauled away the tank’s charred wreckage, Israel vowed to strike back.

“We know that Hamas is behind the incident. We know that Hamas planted the bomb in the area, and we also know who from Hamas is involved in this operation,” Maj. Gen. Doron Almog said. “We intend to continue our defensive and attack operations in the Gaza Strip in a targeted manner against those behind this and other incidents.”

After the attack, the army searched nearby homes and used bulldozers to flatten buildings at the edge of the settlement. Soldiers opened fire on anyone who approached the scene. As Israel prepared to bury the soldiers, Palestinians were bracing for a harsh response in coming days.

It has been a bloody season in Gaza, a contentious stretch of Mediterranean coast known as an often lawless, deeply entrenched hotbed of Palestinian resistance. Irked and embarrassed by the Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired on Jewish settlements by Palestinian militants in the strip, some Israeli officials have said this winter they’d like to reoccupy Gaza.

Other Israelis say the notion of reoccupation is impractical given the dense population and strength of opposition forces in Gaza. But last month, Israel staged its deepest incursion into Gaza City since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. At least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded when Israeli troops and tanks stormed the city overnight.

Israelis say their attacks on the Palestinian communities are meant to break the militant infrastructure. But Palestinians have complained of widespread suffering, civilian deaths and careless targeting by Israeli forces.

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Times staff writer Laura King in Gaza contributed to this report.