In the most recent Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip – the largest since the capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit – five Palestinians were killed and over 40 injured. The deaths occurred during two Israeli air strikes on Palestinian targets and also during fierce gun battles between the invading Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that the army would expand its operations in Gaza, ostensibly to halt the alleged arms smuggling into the Strip and the homemade rockets being fired into Israeli territory. The Israeli security cabinet is expected to decide today on the scope and magnitude of the army’s expanded operations in the Gaza Strip.

The army, which entered the northern Gaza Strip area of Beit Hanoun in the early morning hours, is expected to remain there for several more days. According to Palestinian media sources, National Security Services member Mohammed Zuweidi, Ahmad Saadat, Tareq Nasser, a member of the Izzedin Qassam Brigades and Mohammed Masri, member of Al Quds Brigades, were all killed by shrapnel from Israeli missiles.

Husam Abu Harbid, the personal bodyguard of Minister of Refugee Affairs Atef Adwan, was also killed during a gun battle between Palestinian fighters and the invading Israeli tanks.

Palestinian sources said that one Israeli soldier was killed in the heavy exchange of fire in Beit Hanoun.

The incursion comes at a time when negotiations are underway to secure the release of Shalit and several Palestinian prisoners under Egyptian mediation after Israel has repeatedly failed to pinpoint the location of the captured soldier during several army operations. Israel is also accusing Hamas and other Palestinian factions of smuggling arms into the Strip from Egypt via underground tunnels and says it may expand its operations in the Strip in order to halt the firing of Palestinian rockets.

While Israel maintains it is not interested in re-occupying the Gaza Strip, if the security cabinet accepts the army’s proposals, several more extensive operations will be carried out inside its territories. Already, on Tuesday, the Israeli army massed up its troops in the southern Gaza Strip, saying it called on residents of part of Rafah to evacuate their homes.

This morning’s invasion follows the killing of three Palestinians yesterday during an Israeli raid on the town of Khaza’a east of Khan Younis. The three members of the Izzedin Qassam Brigades, Mohammed, Shadi and Zaki Al Najjar, were all members of the same family. Eight others, including a 12-year-old boy and a mother of three, were injured in the dawn raid.