Gaza Battles Israel attacks Hamas targets after tank crew is killed in Gaza. NAOMI SEGAL Jewish Telegraphic Agency I Jerusalem srael broadened its military oper- ations in the Gaza Strip this week in response to a Hamas attack that killed four Israeli sol- diers. As a result of the operations, Israeli forces killed at lelst 17 Palestinians dur- ing a week that threatened yet more violence to come. In the most deadly of Israel's military operations, at least 11 Palestinian gun- men were killed during an incursion into Gaza City on Tuesday night. It was the second such incursion in as many days. Some 40 tanks backed up by mil- itary helicopters entered a neighbor- hood considered a hotbed of Hamas activity and destroyed four weapons factories and 32 machines used for making weapons. During the six-hour operation, the troops came under heavy fire, but there were no Israeli casualties. As part of the violence and retaliation that has marked the intifada, Palestinians retaliated Wednesday by firing three Kassam rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot. A 35-year-old Israeli man suffered serious head injuries in the attack, the army said. No group claimed responsibility, though Hamas has frequently carried out rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip on the Sderot area. In recent days, Israeli security officials had noted efforts by the Palestinian Authority to prevent Hamas rocket attacks at Israeli targets from Gaza, but Wednesday's attack apparently marked a return to an earlier Palestinian strate- gy. Israel vowed Wednesday to prevent more such attacks. "We will use what- ever resources are at our disposal to slam the door on the terror spewing out of the Gaza Strip," said David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office. In other violence Wednesday, two Palestinians were reportedly killed when a large Israeli force entered the West Bank city of Nablus. Soldiers carried out searches for Palestinian terrorists and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen. The four Israeli soldiers killed Saturday were members of a tank crew. They died when a large mine weighing more than 200 pounds exploded beneath their tank in northern Gaza. The four were identified as Cpl. Noam Bahagon, 20, of Elkana; Sgt. Tal Alexei Belitzky, 21, of Rishon le-Zion; Staff Sgt. Doron Cohen, 21, of Rishon le- Zion; and Sgt. Itay Mizrahi, 20, of Beersheba. This was the fourth such fatal attack against a tank during the past year. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was to avenge the recent killink of tv,ro of its members in Gaza by Israeli troops. Israeli army officials believe the tank set off the mine when it deviated from the path being cleared by a bulldozer that was traveling ahead the tank. The attack touched off a series of Israeli actions against Hamas targets. On Monday night, Israeli troops killed a Hamas member wanted for involvement in terrorist attacks. Israeli troops operating near Hebron sur- rounded the house Mohammed Muhr was hiding in and opened fire when he refused to surrender. Earlier Monday, Israeli troops shot a Hamas leader, Riad Abu Zeid, in an operation near a Gaza refugee camp. He later died of his injuries in an Israeli hospital. Abu Zeid was believed to have taken over from Mohammad Deif, who was seriously wounded in an Israeli military missile raid in the Gaza Strip several months ago. Also Monday, two Palestinians were killed and four others wounded in exchanges of fire erupting in an Israeli military incursion into Gaza City. In another development, six Hamas members were killed Sunday in an explosion in Gaza City. Hamas blamed Israel, but Israeli sources said the blast Secular Worry New Jerusalem mayor stirs anxiety among the city's non-Orthodox population. MATTHEW GUTMAN Jewish Telegraphic Agency Tel Aviv T JZ1 2/21 2003 16 he appointment of an act- ing mayor in Jerusalem has provided a new source of religious-secular tensions in the sharply divided city. On Feb. 16, after Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert announced his resigna- tion so he could take a seat in the Knesset, he was succeeded by Deputy Mayor Uri Lupoliansky of the Orthodox Agudat Yisrael Party. Lupoliansky, the first fervently Orthodox Jew to lead Israel's capital, is likely to remain mayor until municipal elections are held in October. Lupoliansky's appointment reflects the ascendancy of the Orthodox par- ties in Jerusalem's City Council — of eight deputy mayors, six are Orthodox — which has caused anxiety among secular Jews and officials of the liberal Jewish streams. Nevertheless, in his inaugural speech as acting mayor, the 50-year-old Lupoliansky said people should not be "judged on the basis of their lifestyle and dress, but on the basis of their acts." "I extend my hand to all," he told the City Council, which includes a Conservative rabbi, an Israeli Arab and a leader of the gay community. "I will be everyone's mayor and act to reduce the feelings of discrimination and neg- lect" among the Arab residents of east- ern Jerusalem, he said. Anat Hoffman, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center and for- merly a Meretz legislator in the city council, believes his "major test will be his attitude toward Progressive Judaism." Lupoliansky has been asked to meet soon with Rabbi David Ellenson, the president of the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion campus. "He [Lupoliansky] will have to bite the bullet," Hoffman said. "If he accepts the meeting, then we know this is a man we can deal with. If not, there will be international repercussions." Torah Sages Dudi Zilberschlag, an adviser to Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Orthodox affairs, expressed the stance of the Orthodox Council of Torah Sages when it comes to meeting with officials from the liberal Jewish streams. "If the council of rabbis allows it, the meeting will happen. But we are not about to compromise on any element of Judaism. "In fact, the sages prefer to deal with Hamas or the evangelists than Reform. We pay and are willing to pay a very high price to keep Orthodoxy." Meanwhile, Roni Alon, a city coun- cilwoman for the secular Jerusalem Now Party, said, "Lupoliansky is the worst thing that could happen to Jerusalem." A fervently Orthodox mayor would ban soccer games on the Sabbath, halt funding to museums that operate on the Sabbath and not issue licenses to the few restaurants and cafes open in Jerusalem on Friday nights and Saturdays, she told Haaretz. In order to allay the fears of secular parties like Jerusalem Now — and indeed of the majority of Jerusalemites who are not Orthodox — Lupoliansky pledged as one of his first steps as acting mayor to maintain the status quo on matters of religion and state in the city. Poverty Issue A devotee of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashev, head of the Council of Torah Sages, Lupoliansky said he intends to