13 July 2007

The Israeli Army carried out a new incursion into the center of Gaza Thursday, sparking clashes with Palestinian fighters that killed an Israeli soldier, the first such fatality since November. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops on Thursday shot dead a Palestinian who had reportedly opened fire toward them at a road block, Palestinian and army sources said. The incident occurred at a checkpoint north of the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the army said. 

In the Gaza clash, two other soldiers and two Palestinian members of the Islamic Jihad group also were wounded.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Israel would continue to fight the militants in Gaza, where Israel has stepped up incursions to isolate Hamas.

"The terrorists in Gaza are the enemies of the future hopes between us and the Palestinians," Olmert said.

An Israeli military statement said the soldier, the first Israeli killed in combat since November, was killed in a raid on militant targets in central Gaza.

Hamas' armed wing, the Izzeddine al-Qassam Brigades, said its gunmen ambushed the Israeli troops raiding the Al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza, by detonating explosives and firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.

The fighting, involving troops backed by tanks and bulldozers, went on for hours after the deadly assault, as the soldiers went from house to house, detaining dozens of Palestinians, Palestinian witnesses said.

The Qassam Brigades vowed it would pursue its strikes against Israel "to sow death among the soldiers of the occupation in our beloved Gaza Strip."

Israel withdrew its forces and Jewish settlers from Gaza in 2005 but has pressed on with raids, particularly since Hamas' rout on June 14 of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah forces.

Nabil Amr, a spokesman for Abbas, criticized the Israeli raid in Gaza, saying the Palestinian administration in the West Bank "totally rejected and condemned" it.

In footage filmed by Associated Press Television News, Israeli troops were seen herding Palestinian prisoners into armored vehicles. Later, about 10 prisoners, wearing blue jumpsuits and white blindfolds, sat on the ground at an Israeli Army base as soldiers gave them water to drink.

The army said it had detained dozens of people for questioning, but that most were quickly released.

Despite the violence, Olmert planned to meet Abbas Monday for a second round of talks since the Palestinian leader established his new, emergency administration last month, an Israeli official told Reuters.

Olmert himself confirmed during a visit to northern Israel close to the Lebanese border that he would meet with Abbas "early next week" to discuss political issues and Israel's pledge to release 250 Fatah members from its jails. Amr said no date had yet been set for these talks although "efforts are being made to arrange a date for this meeting."

The so-called "Quartet" of Mideast mediators is also expected to meet in Portugal late next week at a ministerial level, an EU diplomat said Thursday.

"We are working on the hypothesis that the meeting will take place at the end of next week, Thursday or Friday, very likely in Lisbon," the home capital of the European Union's current Portuguese presidency, the diplomat said.

The meeting had originally been planned for June but was postponed after Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and senior European Union officials will take part, with new Quartet envoy Tony Blair also likely to attend.

Initially Olmert and Abbas had been slated to appear but the diplomat said: "The time is not yet ripe for that."

The United States has sought to boost Abbas' emergency Cabinet that he named in the occupied West Bank. That move has divided control over the Palestinian territories.

With Western backing, Israel has sought to isolate Hamas in Gaza, keeping most of the territory's crossings to the Jewish state largely shut, opening them only partially to allow in humanitarian supplies to reach 1.5 million residents. - Agencies