GAZA, July 5: Israeli tanks pushed into an industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip late on Wednesday, advancing several hundred metres, witnesses said.

Up to 15 tanks entered the sites of the two former Israeli settlements of Elei Sinai and Nissanit near the Erez border crossing point, the sources said.

The settlements were evacuated last year. A photographer at the scene reported heavy machinegun and mortar fire.

Israel’s security cabinet gave the green light to the army on Wednesday for “prolonged” operations into the Gaza Strip in a bid to release a teenage Israeli conscript captured during a June 25 Palestinian militant attack and to prevent rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

The security cabinet said it had been decided to create an enlarged security zone in the north of the Gaza Strip after an unprecedented rocket attack hit a school in the centre of Ashkelon south of Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

A second rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit Ashkelon on Wednesday, despite warnings by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of reprisals.

Military sources said the rocket landed in an open area without causing casualties or damage, although public television said several people were treated for shock.

The army was also given the go-ahead to step up an assault on northern Gaza by surrounding the two key towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and enlarging an interdiction zone to be enforced by aircraft and artillery in a bid to stave off rocket attacks.

“Given the abduction and continued ballistic salvoes, including the (rocket) launched at Ashkelon, the rules of the game in dealing with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas must be changed,” a statement from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said before the latest launching.

Witnesses said several Israeli tanks had already pushed into northern Gaza to the site of a former Jewish settlement of Elei Sinai from where the first rocket was fired.

Political sources said Olmert was considering establishing a buffer zone in northern Gaza to halt the rocket fire.—Agencies