GAZA - Israeli jets attacked Palestinian posts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday in retaliation for the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and two civilians.
Palestinians said American-designed F-16s swooped over Gaza City and fired two missiles at police headquarters, wounding three police and causing heavy damage.
An Israeli statement said planes successfully hit the main headquarters of the civilian police in Gaza City, and military intelligence and police headquarters in Deir al-Balah, south of Gaza.
In the West Bank, the Army said, jets struck at the Palestinian police headquarters at Salfit village, south of Palestinian-ruled Nablus.
The statement said the strikes were in retaliation for two earlier attacks, one in Gaza and the other in the West Bank.
In the Gaza attack, two Palestinian gunmen infiltrated an Army base, killing an officer and two soldiers and wounding seven others.
Later, Palestinian snipers attacked an Israeli car in the West Bank, killing a settler couple and wounding three, including the couple's two infant children, on the Jerusalem-Modiin road near the West Bank city of Ramallah.
After the attacks, Israeli tanks and bulldozers thrust into Gaza, and Palestinian officials said they destroyed three buildings, including the headquarters, of Palestinian national security in Rafah.
Hospital officials said a Palestinian policeman was killed and two Palestinians were wounded in what witnesses called heavy gunbattles.
The military wing of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn "heroic attack" on the Army camp.
The military wing of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction, the al-Aqsa brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack on the settlers.
The attack on the Army base was one of the most daring Palestinian attacks in 11 months of violence.
The Israeli Army said the militants breached security at the base in south Gaza by infiltrating on two separate fronts. They fired 20 to 40 bullets and hurled up to 10 grenades in a 10-minute battle.
The Army said one attacker died in the exchange and soldiers killed the second as he fled.
A DFLP official denied Israel's version and said the assailant was caught alive and "tortured before being executed by soldiers".
The night assault on the base near Neve Dekalim was the first major DFLP attack during the current violence.
Neve Dekalim is the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza where 6000 Jews live in fortified enclaves surrounded by more than one million Palestinians.
Nearly 700 people, including more than 530 Palestinians and more than 150 Israelis, have been killed since the latest Palestinian uprising erupted in September.
- REUTERS
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Air raids avenge dead Israelis
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