Israel says Gaza push will go on

Israeli officials said Wednesday that they would continue military actions aimed at stopping Palestinian rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, as troops battled militants there during the latest raid.

Israel’s “security Cabinet” directed the military to draw up plans for a possible wide offensive against militants who fire the crude Kassam rockets, which killed an Israeli man a day earlier. A broader Gaza incursion, advocated by some military commanders and other security officials, would be approved separately.

Despite airstrikes, frequent shelling and regular incursions, the Israeli military has been unable to stop the cross-border rocket attacks, which long have disrupted life in southern Israel and killed two people in the last week.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said there is no easy answer to the problem.

“Israel doesn’t see this as something that can be solved by one magical action,” said Miri Eisin, a government spokeswoman.

Eisin said Israel would continue with a mix of tactics, including taking military action against those who assemble, store and launch the rockets and targeting smugglers who import explosives. The military also will continue to target commanders of the militant groups behind the attacks.

As mourners buried the latest Israeli victim Wednesday, militants launched at least eight more rockets; no injuries were reported. Yaakov Yaakobov, 40, died after a rocket struck a meatpacking plant in the town of Sderot, a frequent target.

The military wing of the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas said it fired two rockets Wednesday. Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees also said they had launched rockets.

Israel’s deliberations came amid friction between Olmert and his defense minister, Amir Peretz. Israeli media reported that tensions between them rose this week when Olmert expressed displeasure over a telephone conversation in which Peretz and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas discussed a possible cease-fire.

The newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Wednesday that the two Israelis weren’t speaking to each other. Peretz has been under pressure, including from within his left-leaning Labor Party, to quit in the wake of the summer’s inconclusive war with Hezbollah guerrillas.

Olmert and Peretz have been criticized for what many Israelis see as a defeat in the 34-day conflict in southern Lebanon. Some analysts read the recent clash between them as a sign that Olmert wants to dump Peretz. But Peretz, whose party is Olmert’s biggest coalition ally, has insisted he will not step down.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces operated in the northern Gaza Strip as part of what the military said was a continuing effort to root out the Kassam rockets, which have killed eight Israelis in the last three years.

Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and bulldozers moved to the outskirts of Beit Hanoun, where a six-day raid this month left more than 60 Palestinians dead, mostly fighters.

After that incursion, Israeli shells hit a Beit Hanoun neighborhood, killing 19 civilians. The army said the shells went off course because of a problem with the targeting system.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces were also at the fringes of the nearby town of Jabaliya, north of Gaza City. Palestinians said army snipers had taken positions on rooftops and occupied the home of a Hamas lawmaker, Jamela Shanti. An Israeli army spokeswoman said she could not confirm the report.

During the earlier Beit Hanoun incursion, Shanti helped organize a human shield of 200 Palestinian women who helped dozens of gunmen escape from a mosque where they had taken cover. Two women were killed by Israeli fire when, the army said, soldiers shot at armed fighters in the group.

Two Hamas fighters were killed in the latest clashes, and Palestinian medical workers said a 54-year-old woman died after being struck by shrapnel. Six civilians were reported wounded. Two Israeli soldiers also were wounded.

A spokesman for Hamas’ military wing said it was undeterred by Israel’s promise of further military action and would continue efforts to improve the rockets. The group has said its recent launches were retaliation for the Nov. 8 shelling that killed 19 civilians.

“We do not care about the Zionist threats,” said the spokesman, known as Abu Obeida. “We will continue to storm the Israeli towns with our homemade rockets.”

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ellingwood@latimes.com

Special correspondent Rushdi abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.