BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip (AFP) - The Israeli army widened its massive operation in northern Gaza, as an 11-year-old schoolgirl became the latest victim of a fortnight of violence in the Palestinian territory.
Dozens of tanks and army bulldozers rolled into the town of Beit Lahiya in the early hours as the focus of Operation Days of Penitence, which has claimed the lives of 116 Palestinians, shifted north from the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp.
They flattened several buildings and fields as they entered the area, an AFP correspondent reported Wednesday, but failed to prevent Palestinian militants from firing more home-made Qassam rockets at Israel.
Palestinian sources said two militants were killed by Israeli shelling in Beit Lahiya, adding that both were members of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat`s Fatah movement.
Colonel Eyal Eizenberg, commander of the Israeli army`s elite Givati infantry regiment, told military radio his troops met significant resistance, including firing from the direction of mosques.
"Explosive charges were operated against us and we were also met with anti-tank rockets which hit one of our (armoured) vehicles," he said.
"We intend to reduce the Qassam rocket fire at Israel ... I think that we have conveyed this message to the Palestinians over the past two weeks. If this message is not understood, we will intensify our control on the ground."
Palestinian security sources had also reported overnight that a member of the armed wing of the militant Hamas movement was killed when a helicopter fired a missile in Beit Lahiya.
The operation, the deadliest offensive since the start of the Palestinian uprising four years ago, is aimed at putting an end to the firing of rockets from northern Gaza into southern Israel. Two children were killed in the border town of Sderot in late September.
Israeli military sources said two Qassams, named after Hamas` armed wing, had been launched from Beit Lahiya on Wednesday. One struck close to a kibbutz in southern Israel and a second hit in Gaza. There were no casualties.
Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath, on a visit to Damascus, said Israel was deluding itself if it believed it could crush its enemies.
"What is taking place in Palestine is a crime. The acts of (Israeli) aggression, the crimes and assassinations cannot lead to peace and will not force the Palestinian people to bow," he told reporters.
Israel is also targeting Hamas` leadership in the West Bank, where one of its most senior commanders was arrested on Wednesday.
Imad Qawasmeh, who has been held responsible by Israel for masterminding a double suicide bombing in the town of Beersheva in August, was picked up in an army operation in the town of Hebron.
The operation in Gaza has come in for widespread criticism, with nearly one quarter of the victims aged under 18.
Medical sources said Wednesday that an 11-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl who was wounded by Israeli army gunfire while sitting at her desk in a UN-run school in Gaza had died of her injuries.
Ghadir Mkhemar had been wounded in the chest on Tuesday when shots were fired into a classroom at her school in Khan Yunis run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
Another 10-year-old girl was killed last month after being shot in an UNRWA school in Khan Yunis.
And the Israeli army said Wednesday it had suspended an officer under investigation for allegedly firing multiple shots at a Palestinian schoolgirl who had already been gunned down in southern Gaza last week.
An UNRWA spokesman called the latest death "horrific".
"Schools should be havens of peace. Outside the schools, the pace of child deaths in Gaza has been accelerating terribly in recent weeks," he told AFP.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian security chief related to Yasser Arafat escaped a suspected assassination attempt late Tuesday when a car bomb blew up outside his headquarters in Gaza City.
Musa Arafat was pulling out of the compound in a convoy when the bomb exploded in an attack believed to be part of an internal power struggle.
"I was expecting this assassination attempt," he told a press conference, pointing the finger at "a fifth column which wants to destroy the country."