– Israel Goes on the Offensive

Israel launches missiles at Hamas training camp
CBC News

Missiles struck a Hamas training camp in southern Gaza on Wednesday, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said an offensive started Tuesday would continue if Palestinian militants do not return a soldier taken captive earlier in the week.

Palestinians look at a bridge destroyed by Israeli army warplanes on a main road in the northern Gaza Strip, near Gaza City, on Wednesday. (Hatem Moussa/Associated Press) Witnesses quoted by the Associated Press reported seeing a pair of missiles land about 200 metres apart at the camp in the town of Ratah.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In a seemingly related development Wednesday, four Israeli warplanes buzzed the summer home of Syrian President Bahar Assad.

The low-level flight over his palace in the Mediterranean port city of Latakia was aimed at pressuring Assad to win Cpl. Gilad Shalit's release, unnamed Israeli officials told AP.

Shalit was taken from a military post in southern Israel on Sunday.

Assad, who was in the palace when the warplanes flew over it Wednesday, was targeted because of a reported link between Hamas and Syria, said AP. The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, lives in Syria.

Tensions were heightened after the Palestinian Resistance Committees presented identification they said belonged to 18-year-old Jewish settler Eliyahu Asheri, who has been missing for two days.

Air strikes target bridges, power station

The Israeli army had established itself east of Ratah after air strikes Tuesday knocked out three bridges and the main power station in Gaza.

Those attacks were designed to limit the ability of Palestinian militants to transport Shalit from one place to another.

"We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family," Olmert said in a speech in Jerusalem.

Shalit disappeared Sunday after Palestinian gunmen dug a 600-metre tunnel under the Gaza border and attacked a guard post. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the attack.

The Hamas-led Palestinian government repeated its call for a prisoner swap, saying it wants women and prisoners under 18 currently detained in Israel released in exchange for the soldier.

Olmert reiterated earlier in the day that there would be no such negotiation.

He added that while the Israeli military would continue to progress into Gaza, there were no plans for reoccupation. Israel pulled out of Gaza last year after maintaining a presence there for 38 years.

'We'll never leave them there'

Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN, told CBC News that Israel would do whatever is necessary to protect Shalit.

"Every country would do that. We have to do that," said Gillerman. "We promise our young people when they go out to battle that we'll never leave them there, and we won't."

Shalit is the first Israeli soldier taken prisoner in 12 years.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Hamas should release Shalit.

"Israel has the right to defend itself and the lives of its citizens," Snow said. "In any actions the government of Israel may undertake the United States urges that it ensures that innocent civilians are not harmed."

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has condemned the abduction of Shalit, but Olmert has said he holds all the Palestinian leaders, as well as Hamas leadership in Syria, responsible.

Staff at Canada's mission in Ramallah have vacated the premises as a precaution in case of military action, CBC News has learned.