Palestinian security officials and eye witnesses highlighted on Wednesday that the Israeli Defence Forces conducted one of the largest series of air raids in the Gaza Strip, ever since 19 year old Israeli tank gunner Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by three Palestinian factions on June 25th, leading to the death of six Palestinian and the wounding of at least 45 civilians, Reuters informs.

The air strike in the town of Beit Hanoun, which killed a Palestinian law enforcement officer and two gunmen, including one from Hamas, plus an attack delivered by Israeli tanks that killed three Hamas gunmen, were part of the extensive military operations conducted by Israel in Gaza in order to press for the release of the soldier and to prevent more rocket fire by Palestinian factions against the Jewish state.

The armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, announced in reply that it managed to kill one Israeli soldier and injure several others, when it counter-attacked by launching anti-tank rockets. The announcement has not been confirmed yet by the Israeli army.

Either way, the ongoing operations in Gaza would tremendously weigh down on the current round of negotiations that are being brokered these days by Egyptian officials in Cairo, where both the Israeli and the Palestinian/Hamas sides convened to discuss the fate of the Israeli prisoner and that of the Palestinian ones, held in Israeli jails, as well as a potential swap between them. "The release of the Israeli soldier will only come after the enemy fulfils the conditions set by the captors", one of the spokesmen of Hamas, Ismail Rudwan, stated, referring to the demands issued by the Palestinian side to free more than 1,000 prisoners.

In spite of the serious consequences that such military interventions in Gaza might inflict upon the negotiations, the Israeli cabinet conducted a series of meetings in order to discuss a potential expansion of the offensive. "The intention is to hit the rocket launch sites and terror infrastructure but not to use it as a means of reoccupying Gaza", Ephraim Sneh, the deputy Defence minister, assured during an interview with the Israel Radio station.