GAZA CITY, Sept 7: Israeli troops backed by tanks and armoured cars mounted a major incursion into the Gaza Strip on Friday night amid tight security for the beginning of the Jewish New Year holiday.

The Israeli army hailed the discovery of a large bomb and four rocket-making factories in the raid into the central Deir el-Balah district of the Strip.

But Palestinian officials denounced the operation, which involved some 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, as the “prelude to a large-scale offensive”.

The “powerful bomb” was found in offices of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah movement, the Israeli spokesman charged, adding that groups connected to Fatah were responsible for most anti-Israeli attacks in the Deir el-Balah area.

“Army sappers carried out a controlled explosion of the device after troops had removed documents from the building,” the spokesman added.

Palestinian security officials said the Israeli troops destroyed both a Fatah office and an adjacent civil defence post.

The raid came as Israeli troops went on maximum alert for the start of the New Year holiday at Friday sundown, following the discovery of a massive car bomb in northern Israel the previous day.

Four workshops used for the manufacture of makeshift mortars and rocket launchers were also discovered and destroyed during the overnight raid, the army spokesman added. Two Palestinians were detained on suspicion of involvement in the underground arms making.

A local leader of Islamic Jihad, Maher Bashir, and three other wanted Palestinians were also arrested, the army spokesman said.

Palestinian security officials said the suspects were picked up during house-to-house searches in Deir el Balah town and refugee camp, which between them number some 45,000 people.

The Israeli troops completed their operation and withdrew again on Saturday morning, the army spokesman said.

But Palestinian officials warned that the incursion was the “prelude for a large-scale Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip”.

“This new Israeli escalation is torpedoing the efforts being made by the international community, which must act with urgency to stop these Israeli crimes and aggressions,” senior Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

Another Israeli force staged a brief dawn incursion into the northern Gaza Strip during which they bulldozed the walls of a hotel in the Beit Lahiya district, Palestinian security officials said..—AFP