Israelis kill 8 Palestinians in takeover of Gaza town

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli troops seized a northern Gaza town Wednesday in one of the largest strikes against Palestinian rocket squads in months, imposing a curfew, deploying snipers on rooftops and patrolling streets in tanks. Eight Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed.

Cabinet ministers scrapped a plan to widen the conflict, however, a move that coincided with U.S. and Egyptian efforts to stanch the flow of weapons to Palestinian extremists across the Gaza-Egypt border.

The takeover of Beit Hanoun was expected to last only a few days, according to Israeli officials, who emphasized the operation was not the start of a broader military offensive in Gaza. One plan for such a major operation would involve seizing large portions of southern Gaza to destroy weapons smuggling tunnels from Egypt.

Israel has several reasons not to launch such an offensive now.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to meet with President Bush at the White House this month, and likely would not want a major escalation in Gaza to overshadow the trip.

A wider offensive could also harm negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped June 25 by Hamas-allied militants, and attempts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new Palestinian government acceptable to the West.

An escalation could also hinder U.S. efforts to improve security and cut down on smuggling at the Egypt-Gaza border.

U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte met Wednesday in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Omar Suleiman. Arab diplomats said Negroponte proposed Egypt allow a U.S.-led team of multinational peace monitors to help police the border with Gaza.

He also proposed that CIA counterterrorism experts assist in efforts to halt cross-border smuggling, said the diplomats, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The takeover of Beit Hanoun was the latest in a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza, first launched after Shalit's capture. Such raids are aimed both at pressuring Hamas to release the soldier and at trying to halt rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns, so far to no avail.