Israeli infantry troops backed by armored units launched a broad offensive in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to yesterday's firing of Kassam-2 rockets into the Negev town of Sderot, which injured an Israeli infant. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and three others were wounded during the operations. Palestinians reported at least seven people killed and 14 wounded.

Sixteen-month old Shilo Naamat was reported to be in moderate condition Wednesday morning after two operations were performed during the night to remove shrapnel and set broken bones from injuries sustained when a Kassam rocket struck just outside his Sderot home yesterday just before six p.m. "I found him lying in blood, full of pieces of shrapnel," said his mother, Sima, who was treated for shock.

A second Kassam rocket landed in an open field. The attack marked the first time that the rockets hit targets inside an Israeli city. "Already eight months ago, when mortar shells were fired towards the city, there was a need for a harsh government response," said Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal. Moyal said that schools would be open in Sderot on Thursday as usual despite the rocket attack.

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer gave orders to the IDF "act immediately to cease the firing of the Kassam rockets to make it clear to the Palestinian Authority of the gravity of the act." Previously government spokesmen had indicated that the use of Kassam rockets against a city inside the Green Line would constitute a "whole new ballgame."

According to initial investigation by security forces, the Kassam rockets were fired from the southern outskirts of Beit Hanoun, some 6.5 kilometers (4 miles) from the point of their impact. Shortly after the rocket attack, IDF ground forces advanced into the Beit Hanoun area, in the northeastern corner of the Gaza Strip.

IDF operates on different Gaza fronts
The army confirmed this morning that two soldiers were killed and three others were wounded in Gaza Strip military operations overnight. One of the casualties was Lt. Pinchas Cohen, 23, from Jerusalem. Cohen was killed in gunfire exchanges in the village of Abassan, east of Khan Yunis.

Infantry and elite IDF units operated overnight in the Khan Yunis region of southern Gaza. According to media reports, the army arrested a number of suspected terrorists in Khan Yunis and in Abassan. Engineering crews demolished three structures belonging to wanted terrorists, the army said.

Heavy gunfire exchanges took place in the area between Israeli troops and armed Palestinians. Five Palestinians were reported killed and eight people wounded. Two of the dead were relatives of Issam Abu Daqa, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was not at home when IDF forces searched for him, Palestinian sources said.

Israeli forces reportedly discovered and destroyed an arms-smuggling tunnel near Rafiah, along the border with Egypt. Palestinians opened fire and threw grenades at the Israeli troops; four Palestinians were injured during the gunfire exchanges.

IDF forces took up positions in the area of Al Waha, north of Gaza City. Israeli navy gunboats fired missiles at a Palestinian base north of Gaza City, witnesses said. Three Palestinian policemen were injured when a shell hit their car, and one died of his wounds, Palestinian doctors said. Patrol boats also fired at PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's seaside Gaza headquarters, according to Palestinian sources.

Arafat's Gaza home and a UN-run school for the blind were reportedly damaged in IDF air strikes on the city. Windows were blown out and a back wall collapsed in Arafat's house, though he remains confined in Ramallah. Palestinian sources said that a woman and two children were lightly injured by flying debris when a missile struck a building housing the offices of Maj.-Gen. Abdel Razek Majaydeh, the Palestinian security chief in the Gaza Strip.

In other overnight operations, the IDF struck at a Palestinian intelligence building in Bethlehem and at a police station in Tulkarm. Israeli jets and helicopters attacked targets in Ramallah and Fatah offices in Dahariya, south of Hebron, on Wednesday.

Palestinian sources said that four schoolchildren were injured this morning by Israeli gunfire near their school in the village of Silat al-Baher, east of Tulkarm.

"The students were at the entrance to the school when an army bus full of soldiers stopped, and the soldiers opened fire," village mayor Ragher Abu Dayek told Reuters. An Israeli army spokeswoman said that an army jeep came under fire in the area and the soldiers had returned fire.

On Tuesday evening, an Israeli Apache helicopter fired missiles at a vehicle in Ramallah, killing the Tanzim's chief operations officer, Muhand Dirya Abu Haliwa, and two other militants. Abu Haliwa, a close associate of West Bank Tanzim chief Marwan Barghouti, was said to be directly responsible for the murder of at least eight Israelis since the start of the Intifada, including the shooting attack that killed Binyamin and Talia Kahane in December 2001.

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