IDF tanks, under cover from Navy and Air Force fire, rolled into parts of densely populated Gaza City late Monday night and early Tuesday morning and engaged in intense battles with the Hamas army. The fighting was the most intense since the beginning of the Cast Lead counterterrorist war, Reuters reported.
"We are tightening the encirclement of the city," IDF spokesman Brigadier General Eyal Eisenberg told reporters. Tanks retreated shortly after dawn from two neighborhoods to allow Arab medics to treat the wounded. Several Hamas terrorists were killed.
No injuries were reported among Israeli soldiers in the operation, but one IDF officer was criticallly wounded and two IDF soldiers were lightly to moderately wounded after an explosive device was detonated against them in a booby trapped house that they were searching.