Gaza City - Israel sent ground troops into southern and
northern Gaza Wednesday and Palestinian medical officials said at
least 11 militants and a 12-year-old boy were killed in the heaviest
fighting since Hamas seized full control of the Strip two weeks ago.
A 13th Palestinian - a member of Hamas' Executive Force - died
Wednesday as he was dismantling a bomb found at a security compound
in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.
The fighting came as the forum of Middle East peace sponsors known
as the 'Quartet' appointedTony Blair as its special envoy, hours
after he stepped down as British prime minister of 10 years, United
Nation spokeswoman Michelle Montas announced in New York.
Blair earlier told the House of Commons he believed it was
possible to reach a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
'But it will require a huge intensity of focus and work,' he said.
The announcement came after Russia and some fellow members of the
European Union were initially said to have expressed reservations at
the appointment.
Critics at home too have expressed doubt over Blair's suitability,
given Britain's role as Washington's ally in Iraq and the distrust in
Blair in the Arab world.
But the expected appointment of a personality of his calibre
nevertheless raised hopes for progress in the long-stalled Israeli-
Palestinian peace process.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telephoned Blair Tuesday
evening, calling him a 'true friend of Israel' and saying Israel
would 'cooperate with him to the fullest' as Quartet envoy.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who heads the almost two-
week-old emergency government set up by President Mahmoud Abbas in
the West Bank, said Blair would be 'an important addition to the
framework of international dealings with the Palestinians through the
Quartet.'
Hospital officials said at least 40 other people were injured in
the Gaza fighting, which erupted as Israeli ground troops crossed up
to two kilometres into southern and northern Gaza early Wednesday,
reaching the eastern outskirts of Khan Younis and Gaza City.
The heaviest clashes were ongoing in eastern Gaza City's Sheja'eya
neighbourhood near the Karni border crossing with Israel, where at
least 10 people were killed, including at least nine Hamas and
Islamic Jihad militants, some of them in tank shelling. But two
militants were also killed in gunbattles in Khan Younis.
An Israeli army spokeswoman would only say the troops were
operating against 'terrorist threats from the region.' She gave no
details, but was referring to attempted attacks on Israeli border
crossings and ongoing rocket-fire from the Strip at southern Israel.
Palestinian witnesses said two of the Tuesday's dead were a senior
Islamic Jihad commander, Radi Fanouna, and a 12-year-old civilian
bystander killed when a helicopter gunship backing the ground troops
in eastern Gaza City fired a missile at his car, witnesses said.
Israel however vehemently denied involvement, with a spokesman
saying the army was '100 per cent sure' that it did not hit the car.
The Gaza fighting came two days after Olmert placed his support
behind Abbas of Fatah at a four-way summit in Egypt that excluded the
radical Islamic Hamas movement.
But an Israeli military spokesman said the escalation was the
result of a more intense response by local militants to what he said
was a routine operation.
'There is a situation where many more armed men are confronting
the force. Why we have no idea, but our activity is very similar to
that of the past weeks and nothing unusual,' he told Deutsche Presse-
Agentur dpa.
Abbas, in the joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov in Ramallah, strongly condemned 'all these criminal
acts against our people.'
But he also criticized the ongoing rocket fire from Gaza which has
spurred the recent Israeli military operations.
'I wish to stress that we are against all those useless missiles
coming from here and there,' he said, shortly after the Islamic Jihad
claimed responsibility for firing two Gaza-made al-Quds rockets at
southern Israel.
Meanwhile Hamas, which has refused to recognize Abbas' decrees
since its Gaza take-over, rejected as 'mere ink on paper' a
presidential decree from Tuesday night outlawing all armed militias
in the Palestinian autonomous areas.
The decree, which a Fatah spokesman said was part of efforts to
'tackle the security chaos and scenes of rebellion' in the
Palestinian areas, was issued a week after an Abbas order banning
only Hamas' armed wing.
In Ramallah and in line with the other three members of the
Quartet - the US, EU and UN, Lavrov expressed his support for Abbas,
saying 'we back the acts of President Abbas to restore security and
order according to the Palestinian constitution.'
During the 15-month international boycott of the previous Hamas-
led government, Russia had been the only Quartet member to hold
contacts with the radical Islamic movement.
'Russia, as a member of the Quartet, is doing all it can to help
the Palestinians regain unity,' said Lavrov, who earlier met Olmert
in Jerusalem. Russia would participate in humanitarian aid to the
isolated Gaza Strip, he said, calling on Israel to take 'additional
steps and create an atmosphere to help the peace process.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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