Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday for the first time since last summer's unilateral pullout. The brief incursion was done to prevent Palestinian militants from firing rockets into Israel.
Four Palestinians were killed during an intense gun battle that took place around the former Israeli settlement of Dugit. Three of the dead were members of the militant group Islamic Jihad who were handling a rocket and about to launch it. The fourth dead man was a Palestinian police officer. It was unclear whether or not the officer was involved in the rocket attack or the gun battle.
'We will continue our operations by air, sea and land in order to put an end to the rocket launchings,' Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, told Israel Radio.
The incursion by Israeli forces was brief and they left immediately after the shootout. The raid was supported by helicopters which helped foil the imminent rocket attack.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas condemned the incursion, claiming it was part of 'the Israeli policy of aggression against our people.'
Three Palestinian militants were also killed in three different incidents in the West Bank Monday night and Tuesday. Israeli forces said that two of the deaths took place when shooting broke out during arrest raids but indicated that Israeli troops were not in the area where the third man was killed.
Members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also shot and killed a man and a woman who they suspected had given information to Israel that led to the death of three wanted militants.
