Israeli Tanks Roll Into Gaza Strip

Israeli tanks pushed into the northern Gaza Strip early this morning, launching a series of attacks that left seven Palestinians dead, most of them militants.

As many as 50 tanks occupied a hilltop east of the town of Jabaliya, while Israeli helicopters fired missiles into nearby homes. A spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that the attacks had killed seven and wounded 25.

Four of the dead were fighters from the Izzedine Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and a fifth was from Islamic Jihad’s Al Quds Brigade. The other two killed were an adult male civilian and a 3-year-old girl, the spokesman said.

The tanks pushed more than a mile into the Gaza Strip, occupying agricultural land. As of this morning, shelling and gunfire were audible in Gaza City, about a half-hour drive away.

The Israeli military has launched a series of raids into the Gaza Strip in the last month, after a June 25 cross-border raid by three militant groups killed two Israeli soldiers and captured a third. Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19, remains in captivity.

Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups have exchanged daily artillery and rocket fire over the border. The Israeli army has sought to limit the rocket attacks by shelling the areas commonly used by militants as launch sites and by bombing homes believed to be used for storing rockets.

Residents of the northern part of the Gaza Strip have feared an incursion for several days, as tanks massed across the border. Many residents of the northern town of Beit Lahiya fled Monday after a pair of Israeli strikes killed five people, including two children.