No let-up from Israel
published: Monday | July 3, 2006

Left: Ehud Ohmert.   Right: A Palestinian youth throws stones at an Israeli army jeep during clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday. Israeli troops raided a Palestinian hospital, apparently looking for a wanted man wounded in an earlier operation, Palestinian witnesses and doctors said. The soldiers shot stun grenades and tear gas as they stormed the hospital. One grenade hit a Palestinian youth in the head, seriously wounding him, doctors said. - REUTERS

GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP (AP):

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signalled that government was losing patience with diplomatic efforts to end the crisis and was planning to escalate its military offensive.

Israeli aircraft, gunboats and artillery have pounded the Gaza Strip since Israeli troops and tanks took up positions in southern Gaza on Wednesday in an operation aimed at pressuring Palestinians to free Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

The Hamas-affiliated militants holding Shalit have offered to give Israel information about him in exchange for the release of hundreds of prisoners in Israeli jails, a deal Israel has rejected.