Militants threaten Israelis amid raids

Jerusalem - Palestinian militants involved in the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in southern Israel said on Wednesday they had also abducted a Jewish settler in the West Bank.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees told the Arabic language channel Al-Jazeera that the 18-year-old settler Eliyahu Yitzhak Asheri would be "butchered" if Israel did not cease raids on Gaza that were launched overnight.

The PRC spokesman showed a photograph of Asheri, from the Itamar settlement near Nablus, at a news conference.

Israeli troops and armored vehicles crossed into southern Gaza early Wednesday in what the Israeli military said was an attempt to rescue another missing man -- the kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Soldiers backed by artillery were ordered from the Israeli military encampment in Kerem Shalom to the southern Gaza town of Rafah, near the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border, said the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The Israelis took up positions in Gaza shortly before 3 a.m. (8 p.m. ET) in the area where Shalit was abducted Sunday. Two other Israeli soldiers were killed in the weekend raid by Palestinian militants who tunneled into Israel.

"The IDF will continue to act with determination and to employ all means at its disposal to combat terrorists and their infrastructure ... and will continue to make every effort to return Cpl. Shalit home quickly and safely," the military said Wednesday in a statement.

"The Palestinian Authority, led by the democratically elected Hamas government, is fully responsible for any attacks emanating from the Gaza Strip, and Israel holds it responsible for the safe and quick return of Cpl. Shalit."

Before Wednesday's incursion began, two rounds of Israeli airstrikes knocked out a power plant in Gaza City, cutting power to most of the territory. Video from the Palestinian Ramattan news agency showed fires burning at the site.

Two bridges in central Gaza were hit in order to restrict the movement of the militants holding Shalit, said Capt. Jacob Dallal, a military spokesman.

"We are trying to make it clear to the Palestinian Authority and to the terror organizations that we will take the necessary steps to secure his safe return," Dallal said.

Another airstrike knocked out a bridge connecting the northern and southern districts of Gaza City, witnesses told CNN. Later, the Israelis struck one of the three bridges again.

Capt. Noa Meir, a military spokeswoman, said Israeli commanders have a "general idea" where Shalit was being held.

"We still hope to return safely our kidnapped soldier," Daniel Ayalon, Israeli ambassador to the United States, told CNN Tuesday night from Washington. Israel will call its operation off if Shalit is released safely, he added.

After the kidnapping, Ayalon said, "We had no choice but to react."

Palestinian senior negotiator Saeb Erakat told CNN: "I condemn in the strongest possible terms this attack on our infrastructure. We have 1.3 million people under siege in Gaza.

"Israel is in the process of reoccupying Gaza -- not in traditional sense -- but through control of water, electricity, food and medical supplies, and I don't think the international community should allow it.

"A chance should be given to diplomacy. I urge the United States to intervene immediately."

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his parliament Tuesday to expect "an extended campaign against the Palestinian Authority" unless Shalit was released.

"All targets" would be considered for possible action, Olmert said the day after ruling out any deals with militants for Shalit's release.

But Meir said Israeli troops have no plan to reoccupy the territory, from which Israel withdrew in 2005.

"Our troops have gone in in order to get Cpl. Shalit home safely," she said. "That is the sole intention of our operations."

The incursion marks Israel's first large-scale move into the Palestinian territory since its troops and settlers left last September.

Negotiations between Palestinian leaders and the militants who are holding the Israeli soldier continued Tuesday.

Aides said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was directly involved in talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of the ruling Islamic militant party Hamas.

Israel has slapped a land and sea blockade on Gaza, cutting off people's movements and shipments of fuel and food, nine months after returning control of the territory to the Palestinians.

Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza last year after more than 37 years of occupation. Then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the pullout, along with the withdrawal of Israelis from four small areas of the West Bank, was part of a plan to reinvigorate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

But Israel stepped up airstrikes and shelling in recent weeks as Palestinians continued to fire crude Qassam rockets into Israeli territory.

"Early Wednesday, four rockets were fired from northern Gaza into open areas of a southern Israeli community, causing no damage or casualties, the Israeli army reported.

Israel's deputy prime minister, Shimon Peres, recognized a split among Palestinians and blamed exiled Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal for Shalit's kidnapping. Peres said Meshaal "wants to destroy any chance for peace."

"All this was done against, maybe, the better judgment of the Palestinian leaders on the ground," Peres told CNN. "The orders came from Syria. They came from a gentleman who wants to destroy any chance for peace."

Meshaal, the head of the Hamas political office, lives in exile in Damascus.

Peres said Israel believes that Shalit, who holds dual Israeli-French citizenship, is "alive and healthy." -- CNN News

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