the deadliest military action since Hamas militants took control of the coastal strip. At the same time, Israel allowed in a few sick and wounded Palestinians who had been holed up for days at a fetid border passage with Gaza.
A teenager with leukemia and four other Palestinians in need of medical care went through the tunnel at the Erez crossing in Israel, the military said. Israeli officials also authorized entry of all foreigners living in Gaza.
A U.N. agency, meanwhile, warned of general food shortages in Gaza within weeks if the main cargo crossing with Israel wasn't reopened.
Israeli aircraft fired missiles at two rocket launchers in northern Gaza, in the first aerial attack on the strip since Hamas vanquished the rival Fatah of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas late last week. The strike came in reprisal for militant rocket fire on Israel on Wednesday; no one was injured in the air attack or by the three rockets that were fired.
Israeli tanks, meanwhile, entered southern Gaza about 600 meters (yards) before dawn Wednesday, and four militants were killed in a gunbattle, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Hamas and the allied Popular Resistance Committees said gunmen fired on undercover troops, prompting the army to send six tanks, two armored personnel carriers and a bulldozer to the area.
The army said the entrance of the troops had been planned, was not a broad operation, and was meant to counter militant activity, including arms smuggling.
In the West Bank, two Palestinian militants were killed in a predawn shootout with Israeli troops on an arrest raid on a house near Jenin, residents said. One belonged to Islamic Jihad militant group and the other to a violent Fatah offshoot.
The army said armed men opened fire from the house on troops, who shot back, killing two militants.
Mahmoud Zahar, the man widely believed to be leading Gaza's new Hamas rulers, said his group would be open to a cease-fire with Israel if the army halted its activities there and in the West Bank. He said Hamas was capable of halting the frequent rocket attacks out of Gaza.
"But nobody will be the protector of the Israeli border," he told The Associated Press.
In an attempt to consolidate its power, the West Bank-based government Abbas installed Sunday annulled all decisions made by the previous Hamas government, Information Minister Riyad al-Malki said.
All citizens will be required to change travel documents that serve as passports to papers issued in the West Bank, al-Malki said _ a ruling in effect invalidating documents previously issued in Gaza. And security personnel will be deployed in force in the West Bank to restore law and order, he added.
