MIDDLE EAST: Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, chose the weekend before the general election to launch the heaviest military operation in the Gaza Strip since the start of the intifada 28 months ago.
Twelve Palestinian gunmen were killed in heavy fighting, and more than 60 Palestinians were injured, 20 of them civilians, as Israeli troops, backed by helicopter gunships, penetrated deep into Gaza, coming within about 100 yards of Gaza City's main Palestine Square.
Yesterday afternoon, hours after the withdrawal of the troops, a six-year-old Palestinian boy was shot dead in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. His father said that the boy was playing in a field and had been hit by gunfire from a fortified Israeli position; the Israeli army said that a single warning shot was fired in the air at a group approaching the position. "We don't shoot at will at kids," said a spokesman for Mr Sharon.
Israel has sealed off both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip until after tomorrow's election, citing numerous tip-offs that Palestinian bombers intend to try to mount attacks to disrupt the voting.
The commander of the Israeli forces which entered Gaza on Saturday night, named only as Lt-Col Ron, said in a radio interview that his troops had located and destroyed more than a dozen factories which had been used to manufacture rockets and other weaponry, many of them located in residential areas.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Shaul Mofaz, said that there had been an upsurge in Hamas rocket fire from Gaza on towns in adjacent southern Israel. Ten Qassam rockets fell on the Negev town of Sderot on Friday, he noted, and the army had to "provide defence to the citizens of Israel".
However, Mr Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian Authority minister, accused Mr Sharon of using the army to bolster his already strong political standing ahead of tomorrow's election. "He wanted to end the election campaign on this note, with more Palestinian blood and destruction," Mr Erekat said.
The Cairo-based Arab League echoed this assertion, describing the military incursion into Gaza as "an escalation carried out by the Israeli government to serve its election goals".
At the funeral for the gunmen yesterday, attended by an estimated 30-40,000 Gazans, a Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, vowed that Israel would pay a heavy price for every drop of blood shed. He added: "We will shed Jewish blood in Jaffa and Tel Aviv."
No sooner had the troops pulled out of Gaza than four more Qassam rockets were fired into Israel.
Mr Sharon argues that the bombers and gunmen, and those who despatch them, must be comprehensively defeated before peace negotiations can resume. He maintains that the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, is directly responsible for sanctioning the attacks on Israel.
By contrast, the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Amram Mitzna, would invite the Palestinians back to peace talks right away and would negotiate directly with Mr Arafat, if necessary. Were such talks to fail, he says that he would dismantle the Jewish settlements in Gaza, evacuate their 7,000 residents, and withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip. And he would do much the same in the West Bank, dismantling isolated settlements and pulling back unilaterally to a more defensible line.
Presented with those contrasting options, Israelis are set to plump overwhelmingly for Mr Sharon, whose Likud Party is expected to increase its Knesset representation from the 19 seats it holds at present to more than 30, while Mr Mitzna's Labour, which currently has 26 seats in the parliament, is likely to return with fewer than 20.