Fresh Israeli incursion in Gaza
Palestinians survey the damage after Israel's 24-hour
occupation
The Israeli army has entered a new area of Palestinian-controlled land in the western Gaza Strip, a day after ending a seizure of territory that had provoked scathing international criticism.
Wednesday's move followed a Palestinian attack on a Jewish settlement in Gaza; six mortar shells were fired at Newe Dekalim settlement, causing no injuries or damage.
Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into an area east of Rafah near Gaza international airport and demolished Palestinian border police outposts.
There was an exchange of fire with Palestinian police and militia fighters before the tanks and bulldozers left.
Israel says fortified
posts in Gaza are used
by Palestinian gunman
to fire at Israeli
positions and Jewish
settlers.
Palestinians took to the streets in Gaza for the funeral of a 14-year-old boy killed by Israeli machinegun fire near Karni on Tuesday.
A 16-year-old boy, killed when an Israeli tank shelled his home, was also buried near Bethlehem on the West Bank.
'Planned' withdrawal
Israel raised the stakes on Monday when its troops re-occupied a square mile (2.5 square kilometres) of Palestinian territory at Beit Hanoun in eastern Gaza.
It was the first time Israeli troops had re-entered the 70% of Gaza controlled by the Palestinian Authority for any length of time since it was handed over in 1994 under the Oslo peace accords.
The Israeli forces withdrew 24 hours later after US Secretary of State Colin Powell criticised the operation as "excessive and disproportionate".
Washington said it approved of the subsequent withdrawal, but officials warned Israel not to "overreact" to future Palestinian attacks.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has come in for heavy criticism within Israel for the hasty retreat - after an army commander in Gaza had insisted the troops could stay there for "several months" in order to ward off further Palestinian attacks.
Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer denied US pressure had played a part in Israel's decision to withdraw, saying that had been decided before the US statement.
Harsh words
Correspondents said Washington's rebuke of Israel was the harshest by Israel's main ally since the outbreak in September of the Palestinian uprising.
The six-and-a-half month uprising in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel seized during the 1967 war, has cost more than 470 lives, most of them Palestinians killed by Israeli troops, but also about 70 of them Israelis killed by Palestinians.
Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat said Israel was trying to cause the collapse of the Palestinian Authority, so it could say "it does not have a partner in the peace process and to sabotage the process".
China described the day-long occupation as an "aggression of Arab territory and sovereignty" while France told Israel to "respect the agreements it has signed and abstain from any further incursions".
-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001