Israeli soldiers with tanks and bulldozers entered a Palestinian-ruled part of the Gaza Strip today and destroyed a police position before they withdrew, witnesses said.
Twenty-four hours after ending a day-long seizure of other Gaza areas, the troops moved into the area east of Rafah in the southern part of the strip. Palestinian policemen fired on the troops.
Meanwhile Palestinians tonight in the Gaza Strip launched five mortars into Israel.The Israeli army said apparently no one was wounded when the mortar bombs slammed into an area to the northwest of the communal farm of Nir Am.Earlier witnesses said the Israeli troops retreated to army posts behind the border after three hours in the area.
A resident of Shuka village said the Israelis bulldozed a Palestinian police position and headed to a position nearby.
He said a two-floor building for Palestinian national security forces and a civilian house were destroyed. A monument in memory of Egyptian soldiers killed in battles with Israel in Rafah in the 1950s was also destroyed.
"We are not going to recapture Area A," an army spokeswoman said, using the official term for Palestinian-controlled territory.
The army has accused Palestinians of hurling hand grenades and firing at soldiers from the area, near the border with Egypt.
On Monday night, Israel seized parts of Palestinian-run territory in Gaza and destroyed police positions after mortar bomb attacks on a southern Israeli town.
Accused by Washington of acting excessively, Israel pulled out a day later.
Israel's air, ground and naval strikes on Palestinian security targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday night left the area in disarray with one dead, 30 wounded and homes destroyed.
President Bashar al-Assad, in his strongest reaction so far to the Israeli strike against a radar base in Lebanon, said today Syria would not stand idly by as Israel mounted attacks, his spokesman said.