Palestinians carry a man wounded during an Israeli army incursion in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun

GAZA CITY, May 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel's army launched an incursion in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, May 16, after a deadly Israeli raid on Gaza Strip which cast a pall over the planned meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas.

A large number of occupation troops backed by 70 tanks and armored personnel carriers were reoccupying the town of Beit Hanun as well as parts of Beit Lahia and Jabalya town, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Several Palestinian activists were abducted, while at least eight houses demolished and large swathes of farmland razed by more than 10 Israeli bulldozers overnight, the sources said.

The latest abduction came a day after an incursion in which Israeli troops killed five Palestinians.

The army said its huge incursion was aimed at stopping rocket attacks by “militant” groups on army positions and Jewish settlements inside the Gaza Strip and nearby Israeli towns.

‘As Long As It Takes’

The head of the southern command, which covers Gaza, said the incursion would last as long as it takes.

But the military wing of the Islamic resistance group Hamas which manufactures the Qassam rockets claimed another string of overnight attacks, which caused no casualties.

Israeli troops also shot dead a Palestinian man near Gaza's flashpoint border with Egypt.

The death brought to 3,235 the number of people killed since the beginning of the Palestinian Intifada against the Israeli occupation 31 months ago, including 2,444 Palestinians and 731 Israelis, according to an AFP count.

An army spokeswoman said Israeli forces guarding a border position saw a Palestinian running toward them in a restricted area and shot him after he “failed to heed” their warnings.

The 23-year-old victim's family said he was mentally ill.

The Israeliarmy also continued its incursion of the West Bank overnight, abducting five Palestinian activists and demolishing a house in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said.

The house belonged to a member of the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades -- military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- who carried out an attack on a Jewish settlement in the Jordan Valley last month.

Eight people were expelled from the house before it was dynamited, a practice the occupation army hopes will deter future attackers but which rights groups condemn as collective punishment.

The latest violence provided a tense backdrop for the meeting due to take place on Saturday, May 17, evening between Sharon and Abbas, ahead of the Israeli premier's visit to Washington next week for talks on the international roadmap for peace.

Sharon, who was due to meet with his advisers Friday morning to prepare for his first meeting with Abbas since the moderate Palestinian was sworn in, has shown little intention of complying with the roadmap so far.

Drafted by the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia, it urges the Palestinians to crack down on resistance and the Israelis to freeze settlement activity and withdraw to pre-Intifada lines, in a bid to end the violence and pave the way for a Palestinian state by 2005.

But as Israel continued to flex its military muscle and following defiant comments by Sharon vowing not to change his settlement policy, some Palestinian officials have argued Abbas would only be doing the hawkish premier an unnecessary favor by meeting him just before his trip to the White House.

In the absence of any significant Israeli gesture since the publication of the roadmap more than two weeks ago, the top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat questioned the need to hold such a meeting.

Independent Palestinian MPs have also demanded the talks be scrapped, after a special parliament session to mark "Al-Naqba", which in Arabic means the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation in 1948, was cancelled because the army barred several MPs from reaching the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Expelled From Israel

Arafat, left, walks with Solana, right, after their meeting at his office in the West Bank town of Ramallah

Meanwhile, two French nationals arrived back in Paris late Thursday after being expelled from Israel over alleged links with a British citizen who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv pub two weeks ago.

Three people -- including a young French woman -- were killed in the bombing, plus a bomber, whose accomplice apparently managed to flee.

The two expelled Frenchmen, both in their thirties, were suspected of having links with Assif Mohammed Hanif, whose body was found after the blast, and his presumed accomplice Omar Khan Sharif.

Upon their arrival at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport late Thursday, the French pair were unwilling to talk to reporters.

They were questioned by French police for 15 minutes before traveling to central Paris.

They were met here by members of the International Civil Campaign for the Protection of the Palestinian People (ICCPPP).

"These men were in Israel under the umbrella of the ICCPPP. They are filmmakers, they are pacifists, they observe and witness," said ICCPPP spokesperson Nahrla Chahal.

"Our colleagues never met the British suicide bombers. The Israelis just want to get rid of the outside world," she added.

Israeli police had held the two men for 72 hours before expelling them.

Solana Meets Arafat, Abbas

Meanwhile in Ramallah, E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana met late Thursday with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and prime minister Mahmud Abbas, and expressed his support for the new premier.

"I am very happy about the ideas and the steps that Mahmud Abbas presented to us," Solana said after meeting the Palestinian premier but before speaking with Arafat.

The Palestinian leader said after their meeting: "We thank the Europeans for their assistance to the Palestinian people and their efforts to get the roadmap implemented... and to stop the escalation (of violence) against the Palestinians."

Solana acknowledged difficulties in getting the peace plan accepted, saying "It's (a) difficult moment to reach a stage where we can implement the roadmap."

He had commented earlier on Abbas' new Palestinian government by saying: "We will support him and the roadmap, which is the first step toward a Palestinian state.

For his part, Abbas said he was happy for the support he was receiving from the EU, and expressed hope that support would continue.

Solana, asked about Sharon's refusal to meet with him during his visit, said simply: "I met Ariel Sharon many times before and this is the first time that I am meeting with the Palestinian prime minister."

Sharon is boycotting Solana because of his meeting with Arafat, with whom Israel refuses to deal.

Even so, Solana is likely to be meeting in the coming days with senior Israeli officials, European diplomatic sources here have said.

And a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry said that could include a meeting with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom after he returns Sunday from an official visit to London.