Palestinians: Israel army ends Autumn Clouds operation in Gaza

Palestinian security officials said on Monday night that the Israeli army announced that it had ended its Autumn Clouds military operation into northern Gaza Strip that started on Wednesday morning.

Palestinian witnesses in northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun said they saw tanks and armored vehicles moving out of the town, adding that the number of Israeli army vehicles were reduced as well.

Meanwhile, Palestinian hospital sources said on Monday evening that bodies of two militants were found near Gaza-Israel border in eastern Gaza Strip while the Israeli military operation continued.

The two militants were shot dead by the Israeli army in early morning, and the Palestinians only confirmed their death after the Israeli army allowed Palestinian ambulances to the area.

In the Autumn Clouds military operation, the biggest since Israel pulled out from Gaza and focused in northern Gaza, tanks and bulldozers, backed by helicopter gunships, rolled into Beit Hanoun and Palestinian communities near the borders in northern Gaza.

At least 56 Palestinians have so far been killed in the operation, which, starting on Wednesday last week, was part of an offensive unleashed in June following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militant groups.

The captors holding the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit hostage in Gaza had threatened to kill Shalit if the Jewish state kept on striking the Palestinian territories.

Israeli officials had declared that the operation was aiming at halting Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel.

Source: Xinhua