Israel Withdraws Most Forces From Gaza Strip

A line of Israeli armored vehicles is seen just outside Gaza Strip near Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel Monday, Nov. 6, 2006. A weeklong Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, aimed, the army says, at halting Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli communities near the coastal strip, has left at least 48 Palestinians, mostly militants but also several civilians, dead. The Israeli offensive has drawn growing international criticism, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military would press on. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty) (Oded Balilty - AP)

A 21-year-old Israeli soldier was killed on the first day of fighting. Several other soldiers were wounded, including two by a female suicide bomber.

A small number of Israeli tanks remained around the edge of Beit Hanoun, and Palestinian witnesses said a column of tanks and bulldozers moved into a coastal strip west of the city of Beit Lahiya, where forces operated in June and July against rocket launch sites.

After most tanks left the strip, Israeli military officials said, soldiers fired at two armed Palestinians near Beit Lahiya. The two men, identified as members of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, were killed.

Soon after, near the Jabalya refugee camp, Palestinian gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at Israeli forces, military officials said. The troops responded with tank fire, military officials said.

Palestinian witnesses said a shell hit the home of Jamila al-Shanti, a Hamas legislator who helped organize a women's demonstration last week at a mosque in Beit Hanoun that allowed dozens of gunmen to slip through an Israeli military cordon. Palestinian witnesses said Shanti's sister-in-law and two men belonging to Hamas's military wing were killed inside the house.

Israeli military officials said troops fired later at an armed Palestinian near Beit Lahiya. Palestinian health officials said the man, Nadar Abu al-Amreen, was killed, although it could not be immediately determined if he was affiliated with one of the armed groups.

An Israeli airstrike Tuesday afternoon on a car in northern Gaza killed one member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of the Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority. Three others in the car were wounded.

Special correspondent Islam Abdelkareem in Gaza contributed to this report.