One of the destroyed overpasses

GAZA CITY, January 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance Group Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, announced Saturday, January 25, it had successfully fired a new home-made anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank, as the army dynamited four overpasses Isolating the Gaza town of Beit Hanun.

"Our combatants fired an Al-Battar (sword) missile on Friday made by the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades on an Israeli tank in Beit Hanun (northern Gaza Strip)," a statement said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The missile hit the tank successfully, the statement said.

The Israeli army said earlier Saturday that troops had come under fire from an anti-tank rocket, said AFP.

A number of home-made rockets of the Qassam type made by the Hamas fighters were fired across the border Friday morning by the armed wing of the Brigades, the army said.

One of them damaged a house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, not far from the Nevev desert ranch of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but no one was seriously injured.

Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz later visited Sderot and decided to launch a military operation against Beit Hanun.

Israeli forces dynamited four road overpasses Saturday, isolating the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun, reported AFP quoting Palestinian and Israeli military sources.

The army claimed the objective of the exercise was “to prevent Palestinian militants from making their way from Gaza City to the town and firing more rockets,” AFP reported.

A statement said the operation was carried out by infantry units, backed by armor, sappers and special forces to "permit us to control the sector better" and "protect Israeli locations, both in the Gaza Strip and outside."

It added that the Israeli occupation forces had come under heavy automatic weapons fire, with explosives charges being set off and an anti-tank rocket fired, but that there were no casualties among their ranks.

Meanwhile, on Friday night, the Israeli army killed two Palestinians, including a  47-year-old woman.

Palestinian sources said the woman's 24-year-old son had belonged to the Jihad Resistance Movement and was killed in front of her Nablus hair salon in a gun battle with Israeli soldiers last October.

The other Palestinian killed was identified by the same sources as a member of Hamas. Another Palestinian in the group was wounded and arrested, while a fourth escaped.