GAZA, (Reuters)
ISRAEL'S PRIME Minister ordered the army yesterday to expand an offensive against the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas after its armed wing fired a missile from Gaza into a major Israeli city for the first time.
Hours later several Israeli tanks rolled into the site of a former Jewish settlement in northern Gaza from where the rocket was fired, witnesses said.
Political sources said Ehud Olmert, who launched the operation last week after a soldier was seized by Hamas gunmen and other militants, was considering establishing a buffer zone in northern Gaza to halt the cross-border rocket fire.
An Olmert spokesman said no such decision had been taken on a move that could amount to re-occupying parts of the strip.
Hamas' armed wing hit the coastal city of Ashkelon on Tuesday with an upgraded homemade rocket that travelled 12 km (7 miles) from Gaza. No one was hurt but Olmert called it an "escalation without precedent".
"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 Olmert's office said.
Witnesses said Israeli tanks took up position at the former site of two Gaza settlements before dark, including Elei Sinai, where Hamas militants fired the rocket that hit Ashkelon.
