Middle East: The Israeli military stepped up its response yesterday to the firing of rockets into Israel by Palestinian militants, with fighter jets targeting buildings, roads and a bridge in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, in the latest sign of disarray in the ranks of the ruling Fatah party, several dozen armed men from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades occupied an election office in an area north of Jerusalem, demanding that more Jerusalem residents be included in the party's list ahead of parliamentary elections on January 25th.
In the pre-dawn air strikes, missiles were fired at two offices belonging to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant group associated with Fatah, as well as at access roads to areas from where rockets have been launched, and at a bridge that the Israeli army claimed was also used by militants to reach the launch sites.
Israeli military officials said the two buildings were used by militants to plan attacks, but the Palestinians insisted they were used for educational purposes. The buildings were empty.
The Israeli government has approved the creation of a "no-go" zone in northern Gaza, according to which anyone entering a strip of territory in northern Gaza will be fired on. The military believes the buffer zone will push the rockets out of range of most Israeli towns.
In the wake of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, Palestinian militants have improved the range of the rockets, dubbed "Qassams" by Hamas, and have almost reached the Israeli city of Ashkelon, some 10km (six miles) north of Gaza. Earlier this month, a rocket landed near a power plant and a fuel depot on the southern outskirts of Ashkelon.
The armed men, who fired in the air as they took over the election office in the neighbourhood of A-Ram, just north of Jerusalem, were essentially protesting against Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's candidates on the Fatah list for the elections. Mr Abbas, who faces a serious electoral challenge from Hamas, has spent the last few weeks trying to stop the ruling party from splintering.
Meanwhile, several hundred Jewish settlers set up 14 new illegal outposts in the West Bank yesterday, promising that another 10 would be erected by the end of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sunday.
The settlers said the new outposts were a response to the evacuation of the settlements in the Gaza Strip by prime minister Ariel Sharon in August.
Israeli officials said they had no immediate plans to evacuate the new outposts and that they believed the move was a protest action by settler youths, who would leave the outposts by the end of Hanukkah.
According to the internationally-backed "road map" peace plan, Israel is supposed to dismantle dozens of outposts established in the West Bank since Mr Sharon took office in 2001.