GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli forces rounded up dozens of Palestinian Cabinet ministers and lawmakers from Hamas, increasing pressure on the Islamic militants to release a captured Israeli soldier, and witnesses said tanks moved into northern Gaza, widening Israel's largest military operation in the year since Israel pulled out of the seaside territory.

Adding to the tension, a Palestinian militant group said it executed an 18-year-old Jewish settler kidnapped in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said they believed the body of Eliahu Asheri had been found in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Hamas officials said more than 30 lawmakers have been arrested in the West Bank.

Palestinian security officials said Israeli forces detained the Palestinian deputy prime minister, Nasser Shaer, and three other Cabinet ministers, as well as four lawmakers in Ramallah. Several others were arrested in the town of Jenin, they said.

Israeli media reported a roundup of Hamas lawmakers in Jerusalem and other locations.

Also, the Hamas mayor of the West Bank town of Qalqiliya and his deputy were detained, security officials said.

The military refused to comment. Israel blames Hamas for the attack Sunday in which two soldiers were killed and a third captured when militants tunneled under the border and attacked an army post, setting off the invasion.

Before daybreak Thursday, witnesses said Israeli tanks and bulldozers moved into northern Gaza, stopping about 200 yards inside Palestinian territory across from the Jebaliya refugee camp. No clashes were reported. However, the military denied its forces had moved into northern Gaza.

Despite the size of the Israeli operation, with large troop movements, artillery barrages and many airstrikes over two days, no one was hurt.

Israel held the Palestinian government headed by the Islamic Hamas responsible for the fate of the soldier, also blaming the Hamas leadership in exile in Syria.

An Israeli Cabinet minister said the Syria-based Hamas leader, Khaled Mashaal, was a target for assassination. In a bold warning to the country that shelters him, Israeli warplanes buzzed the seaside home of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the port of Latakia.

Syria confirmed Israeli warplanes entered its airspace, but claimed its air defenses forced the Israeli aircraft to flee.

Israel's concern goes beyond the rescue of the soldier and the negative precedent abducting soldiers would set. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is alarmed by the firing of homemade rockets at Israeli communities around Gaza and support for Hamas in the Arab world, especially from Syria.

Earlier, witnesses reported heavy shelling around Gaza's long-closed airport, and Israeli missiles hit two empty Hamas training camps, a rocket-building factory and several roads.

Palestinians filled up on basic supplies after warplanes knocked out electricity, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis. The Hamas-led government's information ministry warned of "epidemics and health disasters" because of damaged water pipes to central Gaza and the lack of power to pump water.

In Rafah, Nivine Abu Shbeke, a 23-year-old mother of three, hoarded bags of flour, boxes of vegetables and other supplies. "We're worried about how long the food will last," she said. "The children devour everything."

Dozens of Palestinian militants - armed with automatic weapons and grenades - took up positions, bracing for attack.

Olmert threatened harsher action to free the soldier, though he said there was no plan to reoccupy Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a "crime against humanity."

Abbas and Egyptian dignitaries tried to persuade Assad to use his influence with Mashaal to free the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Assad agreed, but without results, said a senior Abbas aide. Israel refused to negotiate with the militants and rejected their demand - freeing Palestinian prisoners - outright.

The Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza said they had executed Asheri, kidnapped in the West Bank. Palestinian security officials said the body had been found, and Israeli security sources said the youth had apparently been killed. the PRC had said it would execute the hostage if Israel did not halt its invasion of Gaza.

Also, militants said they kidnapped another Israeli, and police said they had a missing person report about a 62-year-old Israeli from the central Israeli city of Rishon Lezion.

The European Union on Wednesday urged both Israel and the Palestinians to "step back from the brink" and, echoing a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to give diplomacy a chance.

The White House kept up its pressure on Hamas, saying the Palestinian government must "stop all acts of violence and terror." But the U.S. also urged Israel to show restraint.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged restraint in a phone call to Olmert, saying he had spoken with Assad and Abbas and asked them to do everything possible to release the soldier. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called on the U.S. to assume its role as "honest broker" and to make the Palestinian-Israeli conflict its top priority in the Middle East.

Gaza's economy was already in the doldrums before the Israeli assault, a result of five years of Israeli-Palestinian violence and an international aid boycott that followed Hamas' parliamentary election victory in January. The Israeli assault threatened to turn a bad situation into a disaster - underscoring the extent to which hopes have been dashed following the optimism that accompanied Israel's pullout.

Palestinian plans for high-rise apartments, sports complexes and industrial parks in lands evacuated by Israel have given way to despair, with rising poverty, increasingly violent relations with Israel and a looming threat of civil war.

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This is what happens when Israeli's unilaterally give the Palestinian's something, without the Palestinian's earning it. And yet, some of us expect the military to drop curfews, roadblocks, fences, stop flying planes, and stop shelling?
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Drudge reports Palestinian militants have fired a chemical weapon at Israel. Developing...

yea, it's a mess over there right now...

...making my job harder

I dunno if you can really expect unilateral decisions to help solve a bilateral conflict.

reports from where?

my brother just told me this too


if anyone has any concievable notion of what it looks like when the shit hits the fan, this will put it to shame

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-06-29T013909Z_01_L29258645_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST-ROCKET.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

No reports of any deaths in the Gaza raid.... that is restraint.
I only wish there was a hell so that Hamas members could suffer for eternity. I actually hate them as individual people.

Oy.

That isn't the sole cause of the problem, but yes, unilateral withdrawal from Gaza was a dumb fucking move.

Earning it? What is that supposed to mean? These aren't even human beings in your eyes. Its proof that you think their population should be entirely submissive to the state of Israel, and they need to "earn" their status as people. Maybe you'd better rethink some of your rhetoric.

And if you think that people weren't affected by the military action, well then go back and re-read the article. Of course that would all be the Palestinians' fault as usual, wouldn't it? Why would Israel refuse to swap for a captured soldier three days ago, roll into Gaza, "risk humanitarian crisis" with massive power outages and then kidnap lawmakers and Hamas leaders and then decide it is time to bargain? Because they are a bunch of arrogant douchebags? This is all justified (with "restraint" obviously) to save one Israeli solider, who is of course (once again) worth more than the lives of hundreds of civilians.

And if there were deaths, you'd still justify it. The possibility of another looming Palestinian humanitarian crisis is pretty good restraint, isn't it.

It's unbelievable that you think the Palestinian's should get away with this. It really is. How did I possibly dehumanize them by saying that they didn't earn the Gaza pullout? For real, get with the program.

You are an uber-pacifist. You think that diplomacy should be the only way. You believe in give and take when it comes to conflict without the use of force, yet, you don't understand the concept that Gaza didn't earn the withdrawal? It's unbelievable to me. Especially when you examine what happened because the withdrawal occured.

The Palestinian leadership did nothing for what was handed to them. It was just given to them flatout. They didn't stop attacks, the didn't change any policies, they didn't go after terrorist groups, in fact, they legitimized them further. Israeli made a huge, enormous unilateral show of good faith, and the Palestinian's simply continued to attack Israel. They did not return the favor. How is that dehumanization?

You say that Israel should just collapse to Palestinian demands of "give us three terrorists for this soldier that we kidnapped." What the fuck is that? I'm honestly beginning to think that you just want Jews to just...stop doing ANYTHING at all to defend themselves and just take it up the ass, and that you think the Palestinian's should do, can do, and have every right to do whatever it is that they want.

In short, you're talking out of your ass.

This is nothing more than another clear example of Palestinian leadership failing its people. They were GIVEN GAZA! And they go and do this crap.

Because they are not stupid. Give in once and that teaches them cause and effect. Kidnap Israelis, get what you want. Why should they give into the demands of this evil animals?

The blood of any civilains hurt is on the hands of teh kidnappers the government that supports them.

How about you get with the program of the international community's overwhelming condemnation of Israeli escalation? I'm an "uber-pacifist" (kind of like how I said you were an uber-patriot last week, right), who wants nothing done and suicide bombers to run freely into Israel. That is wrong. Israel has dirty if not filthy hands in this entire conflict. They're just as responsible as anyone. It's more than about when exactly using military action is appropriate. They've lied to the world and broken promises throughout their history, that is what has sown the seeds of terrorism. And they've been reaping what they've sowed. People aren't born terrorists. Zionists Jews committed acts of terrorism against Great Britain in the 1940s, to ensure that they had a state. If I were living in Gaza and the West Bank, I'd be pretty terrified of the Israeli war machine. That's also terrorism.

Have the Palestinian and arab leaders dubiously done the same? Yes, obviously. They can't play the victims forever, but then again neither can the Jews. And most people and governments recognize this. That is why Israel is entitled to defensive measures. Escalation in civilian areas is not a defensive measure. Destroying road and transportation infrastructure is not a defensive measure. Building settlements against former treaties is not a defensive measure. Its wreckless. And let me remind you that Israel has a say on the world stage.

They receive hundreds of millions for their military every year, while thousands of occupied Palestinians live in refugee camps that Israel has been known to occasionally demolish. There has to be a two state solution in which they are given 100% control over their own destiny.

This is asinine. You could use that logic to easily blame Israel for having the blood of their own civilians on their hands because of their occupation. And Israel has given into the demands of the "evil animals," just like they've completely disrespected International laws in an overwhelming majority of their so-called "defensive" circumstances. The minute you start degrading and dehumanizing your enemies the more you become like them. And the Israeli government has done this pretty profoundly.

Focus on the point.

Give in to kidnappers ---> more kidnappings. This is simple stuff that even an evil animal can comprehend.

The Palestinians are given hundreds of millions in aid assistance every year as well (from the US too, which happens to be the biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinians before they elected terrorists to govern their people). The Palestinians have been given so much money over the years and their government gives them NOTHING. The PA and Hamas have both kept their people living in squalor giving them no jobs or hope. It is unbelievable how much of the Palestinian's plight is the direct consequence of their governments actions (or inaction I should say). Arafat died a billionaire with his family living in France... the PA and Hamas want the Palestinians to live in horrible conditions. They want them to live shitty lives. The last thing they want is for Palestinians to live happy lives next to Israel. They want them to live happy lives with NO Israel. The PA and now Hamas have no sympathy for their own people. How don't you see this? The hopelessness of the Palestinians lies with their own government, hardly the Israelis. They Palestinians could be living a somewhat prosperous life in their own state by now if it wasn't for their "all or nothing" attitude. Fucking live with it: Israel is here to stay. Make your next steps toward statehood accordingly...

If my vote were the only one that counted, the increasingly alarming events of the last 24 hours in that part of the world would be getting a lot more attention than some lightweight flooding in the US.

I remember an entire town in South Dakota was evaporated by a tornado when I was growing up, and my dad used to always quote the comment a surviving local made when CNN (then the only cable news channel?) swooped in to interview. "We've lost a lot this week, but at least we don't live in the Middle East."