Militants Bomb Israeli Base in Gaza

Unleashing a sophisticated new tactic, Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli army outpost near a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip on Sunday by digging a long tunnel, packing it with high explosives and detonating them by remote control.

The army said at least one soldier was reported killed and five wounded in the attack, which targeted an Israeli base guarding the Gush Katif settlements in southern Gaza.

The powerful explosion collapsed the roof of the small but heavily fortified outpost, burying some soldiers under rubble. As rescuers approached, they came under heavy mortar fire and gunfire from the adjoining Palestinian town of Khan Yunis, according to Israeli reports. That attack set off a fierce gunfight in which two Palestinians were killed and six wounded, hospital officials said.

Overnight, Israeli helicopters launched missiles at what the army said were two weapons workshops in Gaza City. No casualties were reported.

The attack on the outpost, like other strikes by Palestinian militants against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the Gaza Strip, was certain to galvanize a bitter public debate about whether Israel should leave the seaside territory.

Those who oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw troops and settlers from Gaza by the end of next year consider this fresh evidence that an Israeli departure would be tantamount to surrendering to the militant groups. Those who support a pullout point to this as the latest sign that as long as the settlements exist, they will be a magnet for attacks -- and the young soldiers guarding them will pay with their lives.

In Khan Yunis, messages from mosque loudspeakers proclaimed the attack to be the work of the military wing of Hamas, the Izzidin al-Qassam. Hundreds of Hamas followers staged a triumphal march in the streets of the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, which had been the home to top leaders who were assassinated by Israel this year, including Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

A claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack also came from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, whose West Bank commander was killed a day earlier in an Israeli raid in the northern city of Nablus.

Of late, the militant factions in Gaza have collaborated on attacks frequently and made joint claims of responsibility.

Residents of Gush Katif, a sprawling enclave whose communities make up the largest of the Gaza settlements, were ordered to remain in their homes while the gunfight raged.

The outpost where the attack took place was once a restaurant, which had been heavily reinforced and turned into a barracks and watchtower for Israeli troops guarding the road that leads from Israel proper to the settlement cluster.

In a country where almost every family has a relative serving in the military, the attack triggered a wave of anxiety, intensified by erroneous preliminary reports of dozens of casualties.

Scenes of the rescue effort at the outpost were flashed on Israeli television screens and Hebrew-language Internet sites long before the army could notify families of those hurt or killed.

Guarding a Gaza settlement is considered so dangerous that many soldiers do not tell relatives, particularly their mothers, about the duty they have drawn.

Despite overwhelming military superiority, Israeli forces in Gaza have absorbed some hard blows this year. Eleven soldiers died in a week in May when Palestinian militants blew up their armored personnel carriers -- after careful surveillance by the attackers to determine which of the vehicles was carrying a load of high explosives.

Those attacks led to Israeli raids in the southern town of Rafah that left dozens of Palestinians dead and hundreds homeless.

Well-engineered tunnels, used by the militant groups to smuggle weaponry under the Egyptian border and into Gaza, have been the bane of Israeli forces in Rafah, and Sunday’s attack appeared to have drawn on that concept. Israeli officials said the tunnel toward the Israeli outpost apparently was more than 300 yards long and as deep as 90 feet. Hundreds of pounds of explosives were set off by mobile phone.

The only previous time that Palestinian militants tried to tunnel under an army base was in 2001 when they dug beneath an Israeli outpost in Rafah, but the strike caused little damage and only minor injuries.

Militants in Gaza have consistently demonstrated an ability to adapt their tactics to the Israelis’ defenses. Past attacks have employed mock-up Israeli army vehicles and attackers clad in army uniforms. Assailants have also learned to make more powerful and sophisticated roadside bombs aimed at Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers.