Israeli tanks and military aircraft launched an attack in Gaza this morning, a day before peace talks were due to begin in Jerusalem.

Four militants were killed and up to 60 Palestinians arrested during the first major Israeli incursion into Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in June.

Residents and Hamas security forces said at least 30 tanks and bulldozers had rolled in as part of the dawn raids, but Israeli officials played down the attacks, claiming that just ten tanks had pushed the mile into southern Gaza.

The operation focused on an area that is a main launching ground for rocket and mortar assaults targeted at army bases and at the Israeli-controlled Sufa crossing into Gaza.

The timing of the raid has puzzled some analysts, coming just 24 hours after Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, had pledged to “forge a historic path” toward a final accord at tomorrow’s peace talks.

Mr Olmert will meet Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, for the first formal peace negotiations between the two sides in seven years.

The leaders hope to tie up a historic deal next year, but Mr Olmert has warned that Israel cannot implement any agreement until the moderate Abbas-government regains control of Gaza and reins in militants in the West Bank.

This morning’s violence coupled with Israel’s announcement that 307 new homes would be built at the Har Homa settlement in the West Bank will create a tense atmosphere in Jerusalem tomorrow.

Mr Olmert had vowed before the Annapolis meeting last month to uphold a pledge not to build new settlements, part of a move to persuade Arab countries including Saudi Arabia to take part in the US conference.

James Hider, Middle East Correspondent for The Times, explained that negotiations will proceed amid much hostility.

“Israeli officials admit today’s incursion is larger than usual, but say it is a normal anti-terrorism operation,” he said.

“The Palestinian administration is most concerned by the Har Homa settlement. There will be a lot of mutual distrust tomorrow in part as a reaction to the fighting in southern Gaza, partly due to the building plans.”

The fragility of the relationship between the two sides was sharply illustrated today. While Israeli officials attempted to shrug off the incursion as a routine operation, the Palestinian Authority was calling for the international community to intervene and end the incursion.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Mr Abbas, said: “The Israeli policy of escalation aims to sabotage and place obstacles before the negotiations even before they start.”

Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Israel has carried out frequent airstrikes and small ground incursions in response to Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli border communities.

Today’s violence, however, was far more serious – tanks and bulldozers pushed approximately 1.5 km (1 mile) into southern Gaza along the main road between the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, and opened fire.

Soldiers took over the rooftops of several homes at around dawn and detained more than 60 people in house-to-house raids. The Israeli military said they were taken into custody for questioning.

One of the targets of the shelling was a multi-storey building that suffered heavy damage. Amid the rubble, at least two militants lay dead, including one man whose body was torn in half by a blast.

As rescuers pulled the bodies away, two more Israeli shells struck the building seconds apart, sending people scrambling for cover. The body of a third man lay motionless after the blast.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, said: “They believe that such operations will harm the resistance and weaken it, but they are mistaken.”

Four Israeli soldiers were slightly injured during the assault when a grenade struck one of the tanks.

The Islamic Jihad group said an Israeli tank shell killed three of its fighters, and the smaller Popular Resistance Committees said a member died in an airstrike. Hospital officials confirmed the deaths.

Times Recommends

• Fish and chip shops ‘selling cobbler as cod’
• T in the Park festival at Kinross
• Body Watch