Army operating in Khan Younis
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Margot Dudkevitch, THE JERUSALEM POST Dec. 22, 2004--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Late Tuesday night, IDF ground forces, backed by engineering and armored units, once again entered the western sector of the Khan Yunis refugee camp because of the continuation of mortar shell attacks on Gush Katif settlements from the camp.
Early Wednesday morning, soldiers shot an armed Palestinian spotted approaching troops in the camp.
Troops shot a second Palestinian in northern Gaza as he tried to cross over the fence separating Gaza from Israel, the army said.
The IDF said more than 15 mortars and rockets have been fired from the camp at nearby Israeli settlements in the past few days. One hit a synagogue and another exploded next to a kindergarten. Both caused considerable damage but no casualties.
IDF bulldozers are clearing lands and demolishing uninhabited structures from which the Palestinians launched their attacks. So far, three anti-tank rockets and shots were fired at IDF forces. No one was wounded in the attacks.
Residents said bulldozers destroyed the rest of a clinic damaged in an earlier raid.
The IDF incursion came just three days after the IDF completed a similar operation in the camp in which eleven armed Palestinians were killed and over 50 wounded.
The IDF said the current operation would be smaller in scale, but warned that it could escalate if there is significant Palestinian resistance.
IDF troop movements were also reported at the northern entrance to the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have been firing rockets at Israeli towns just outside the territory. Palestinian police evacuated their positions near the Israeli border, and residents said the area was without electricity.
At the start of the operation, the IDF ordered Palestinians to leave the neighborhood of the Khan Yunis camp called the "Austrian Project." The IDF said the residents were being asked to leave for their own safety, and their houses would not be damaged.
In the West Bank Tuesday night, security forces arrested seven Palestinian fugitives in villages south and southwest of Bethlehem and a village southwest of Jenin. One of those arrested was a Palestinian woman from Rashida, south of Bethlehem.