Violence escalates in Gaza

"Large numbers of Palestinians would be motivated to become bombers to avenge this," he says. "It doesn't seem logical to me to cause this amount of damage. It's a lack of thinking. I would question the attack from an operational point of view. You don't need to kill this large number of people to get one wanted person or to destroy a home. There are no parameters, there are no red lines here."

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) says that, on the contrary, there was a very clear logic to their choice of target. Militants in the Gaza Strip, the army says, have stepped up their attacks on the approximately 7,000 Jewish settlers who live there. It claims the militants are constantly planning additional attacks inside Israel.

"This operation is due to all the terror attacks which have happened in past month. The attacks happen every day and night, and the attacks have grown - you can clearly see that," says an Israeli army spokeswoman.

When Israeli soldiers entered the area, she says, they came under "massive fire and returned fire towards the gunmen who were shooting at them." Palestinian militants who fired at the soldiers used antitank missiles, automatic rifle fire, and explosive devices, which she pointed to as proof of the Palestinian ammunition on hand for attacks on Israeli soldiers.

Sharon's office denied that the raid had any relation to an attack on an Israeli checkpoint on Saturday, and insisted that the upsurge in violence did not affect the Prime Minister's intention to withdraw from Gaza.

"The Prime Minister is still committed to the plan. But Israel is determined to root out terror in that area and to diminish the threat to Israelis living there. It's not something we're willing to put on the back burner," says David Baker, an official in Sharon's office. "What we do see here is a steady and rising trend to strike at Israelis at those areas."

Not all Israelis, however, are convinced that such full-force strikes against militant groups is a worthwhile tactic for fighting terrorism, given the probability of injuring and killing civilians and other innocent bystanders.

"The IDF wants to show that it has the capability to do what it wants in Gaza. They are afraid that if we are going to leave Gaza soon, now is the last time to do something against these groups," says Reuven Pedatzur, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University. "But does this kind of incursion result in reducing the level of terrorism? And as far as I can evaluate, nothing happens. On the contrary, after this kind of raid, there are more terrorist attacks. The only response from the Palestinian side is more violence, more revenge. I think no one's talking about the moral issue anymore."

In one hospital bed in Gaza, an 18-year-old wondered if he'd ever be able to play soccer again. Muammar El-Isawi, who had been shot in both legs, winced as he talked. "I wanted to start throwing stones at the tanks which were withdrawing. Other people were throwing stones and then I was shot from a tank," he says. "When you see all this killing around you, you just say, 'enough!' "

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