Israel launched air strikes against Palestinian targets across the Gaza Strip today after rebuffing a proposed ceasefire by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.
Israel is threatening to expand its offensive unless militants release Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier abducted in a cross-border raid on June 25th, and halt rocket fire on Israeli cities.
"The operation will go on until someone on the other side sobers up," Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israel Radio. At least three militants were injured in an early morning air strike near the Karni commercial crossing between Gaza and Israel, Palestinian medics and police said.
Israel also bombed a key bridge in northern Gaza, despite an appeal from the United Nations to stop targeting the strip's fragile infrastructure. The army said the goal was to prevent militants from transporting rockets to launch sites.
Rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip, territory Israel quit last year in a pullout of troops and settlers, continued. In the latest attacks, a rocket landed in a street in the Israeli town of Sderot, wounding one person, the army said. A second rocket slammed into a house in the border town and three people were treated for shock. Hamas's armed wing said it launched the rockets.
Earlier in southern Gaza, Israel bombed a militant training camp. No one was hurt. Israel killed seven Palestinians, including a 6-year-old girl and a policeman, yesterday, Palestinian witnesses said.
About 50 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed in the offensive launched on June 28th to press the Hamas-led government, already on the brink of financial collapse from a Western aid embargo, to help free Cpl Shalit.
Israeli tanks left much of the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday but soldiers remained in the southern part of the territory and have deployed close to the outskirts of Gaza City.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on both sides to respect their obligations under international law. "As I have repeatedly stated, I am extremely concerned about the dangerous situation in the occupied Palestinian Territory. I am appealing for urgent action to alleviate the desperate humanitarian situation of the civilian population," he said.