By Xinhua
Jerusalem : The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew its ground troops from the Gaza Strip early Monday, completing the first stage of the activity dubbed “Operation Hot Winter.”
The IDF ground troops’ withdrawal came following days of incursion with an aim of checking Palestinian rocket attacks against southern Israel.
However, while Israeli army troops were leaving Gaza, about 9 Qassam and Grad rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israeli town.
The IDF decided to withdraw from Gaza after Washington appealed to Israel for an end of violence and a rescue of the peace talks with the Palestinians before U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to this region slated for Monday night.
Although Israeli army pulled out, its actions against Palestinian rocket fire would not stop.
An Israeli government spokesman was quoted by local media assaying that “We will continue with our defensive actions against those who fire lethal rockets at our civilians.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also vowed on Sunday to continue the necessary military operations against Palestinian militants in Gaza.
“If anyone in Gaza has illusions that extending the range of rocket fire will bring our operations to an end, they are sorely mistaken,” Olmert told ministers during the weekly cabinet meeting.
As early as Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak vowed to continue operation in Gaza if only a security assessment thinks it is needed.
Barak said that the rocket production labs must be destroyed and Israel Air Force (IAF)’s strikes on Gaza must furthermore continue.
The Israeli army had been carrying out since Saturday a major ground operation into Gaza, where tanks and bulldozers backed by aircraft have also taken part in.
According to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, at least 48 Palestinians were killed during the operations since Saturday.
Before the escalation on Saturday, IDF started an offensive against Gaza on Wednesday when an Israeli civilian was killed by rocket fire. More than 100 Palestinians and two IDF soldiers have been killed since the start of the operation on Wednesday.
Palestinian sources said that among the Palestinian casualties, 12 were civilians including children and women. More than 60 Palestinians were also injured.
They said that most of the militants slain were Hamas members while several others were from Islamic Jihad (Holy War) and one from the Popular Resistance Committees.
Commenting on the effect of the operations in the past few days, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon told Israel Army Radio that “This operation has run its course. The main goal of the Israeli government … is to end the firing at targets in the south. There were dozens of deaths among the Hamas terrorists – this is certainly deterrence.”
In response to the Israeli offensive into the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) decided to suspend peace talks with Israel.
However, PNA’s decision was left unheeded. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said that the Palestinian threat to suspend peace talks will not affect Israel’s operation in the Gaza Strip.
Livni was quoted by Yedioth Ahronoth as saying that Israel’s need to protect its citizens has always been a precondition to the basis of the negotiations between Israel and the PNA.
Olmert also refused to pay much heed to the threat by the PNA. He said early Monday that negotiations with the Palestinian Authority would continue.
He was quoted by Israeli daily Haaretz as saying that Israel would take further military action against militants firing rockets and he will tell Rice that Israel reserves the right to act freely in the Gaza Strip against Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups.