Israeli tanks and bulldozers emerging from a Jewish settlement have entered Palestinian-controlled territory just south of Gaza City.
Palestinian security sources said the tanks and bulldozers entered around one kilometre into the autonomous Palestinian sector after crossing from the Netzarim settlement, destroying agricultural land on the way.
Meanwhile, a joint security meeting late last night to discuss the chances of a further Israeli pull-out from the West Bank towns failed after Israeli accused the Palestinians of stalling on the issue of arrests.
Israel intends to stay in the remaining five Palestinian towns it has invaded in the West Bank until the Palestinian leadership makes more than a token effort against extremists, a senior official said today.
"The Israeli army will stay in the positions it has occupied as long as the Palestinian Authority does not make good on its promises to arrest terrorists," said the official, close to right-wing Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon.
"For the moment the Palestinian police are just arresting pensioners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and not the people carrying out attacks on Israel or the people who send them," said the official, who asked not to be named.
The PFLP claimed the assassination of Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi on October 17th.
Israel has said it arrested two accomplices of Zeevi's killers, one of them in a bloody raid on the Palestinian autonomous village of Beit Rima last week.
But it says the actual killer and the rest of the masterminds behind the assassination are hiding out in Palestinian self-rule territory.
AFP