Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli warplanes flew over Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's palace to warn Syria against supporting Palestinian militants who captured an Israeli soldier, Israeli TV stations said on Wednesday. The overflight took place yesterday, security sources said.
The overflight came as Israeli aircraft struck northern and southern Gaza yesterday and thousands of troops, backed by warplanes and tanks, forged into the coastal strip in an operation meant to pummel Palestinians into releasing an Israeli soldier.
The Hamas-led Palestinian government called for a prisoner swap with Israel to solve the Gaza crisis a solution Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected when Hamas-linked groups holding the soldier proposed it. Militants allied with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party meanwhile said they were holding a third Israeli captive.
Gaza residents braced for a major strike, some stockpiling food, water, batteries and candles after warplanes destroyed the coastal strip's only power plant, and main roads linking north to south. Others, near the tanks and troops in southern Gaza.
