Palestinians launch raid from Gaza into Israel

Sun Jun 25, 5:30 PM ET

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Hamas militants launched on Sunday their first deadly raid into Israel from Gaza since an Israeli pullout last year, killing two soldiers while another was abducted, in an assault in which two attackers died.

The infiltration, through a tunnel militants dug under the Gaza border fence to reach an army post, raised tensions along the frontier to their highest point since Israel completed its withdrawal last September after 38 years of occupation.

Israeli leaders ordered the army to prepare for "urgent military action" and a "harsh response," including targeting civilian infrastructure and possibly striking at elected leaders of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, officials said.

Israel's Channel One television said the cabinet had authorized an aerial blitz against militant targets and an Israeli ground strike into the Gaza Strip. It said that Israeli troop reinforcements had been moved to the Gaza border.

But Israeli ministers decided to hold off on any immediate action, and allow two days for talks through diplomatic channels to try to free the soldier, an Israeli political source said.

"This was a very serious Hamas terrorist attack," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said before the closed-door meeting.

"Israel sees the Palestinian Authority headed by Chairman Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) and the Palestinian government responsible for the incident, with all that implies," he said.

Israel's response "will be painful," added Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

ARMED WING

The armed wing of Hamas, an Islamic militant group, and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for the raid which followed recent Israeli air strikes that killed 14 Palestinian civilians.

"Israel's first and utmost priority is to retrieve and bring this soldier home to his family as quickly as possible," Israel's United Nations Ambassador Dan Gillerman told Reuters.

Abbas met Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh about the kidnapping. He asked Hamas officials "to do all they can to help secure the release of the kidnapped soldier," an aide said.

In a statement, Abbas said the raid near the Kerem Shalom crossing "violated the national consensus." He also the international community "to prevent Israel from exploiting the attack to carry out large-scale aggression in the Gaza Strip."

An Israeli military spokesman said seven to eight gunmen had infiltrated underground and attacked an empty personnel carrier, used grenades against a tank and fired at another position, before returning to Gaza.

Israeli forces scrambled into Gaza to search for the missing soldier, who the army said had been kidnapped. There was no immediate claim from any of the militant groups that took part in the dawn raid that they were holding him.

"As far as we know, the soldier is alive," Israeli army chief of staff Dan Halutz later told a news conference.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper's Web site said Arab diplomatic sources involved in efforts to bring about the soldier's release have reported he was in good health.

The army said two other soldiers were killed in the raid, while militants said two gunmen had died.

The last time Palestinian militants are known to have kidnapped an Israeli soldier was in 1994. That soldier died in a rescue attempt.

(Additional reporting by Megan Goldin in Jerusalem)

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