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Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles rolled into the southern outskirts of Palestinian-ruled Gaza City early on November 14, witnesses and security sources said.
They said a convoy of about 50 vehicles had entered the As-Sabra neighborhood of the Gaza Strip's main city where Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the militant Islamic group Hamas, lives.
It was not clear if Yassin was at home but aides say he often spends the night elsewhere as a precaution.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment. It has been trying to rein in Hamas, which has carried out a series of suicide bombings in the two-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Israel has also sent tanks and troops into the West Bank cities of Nablus and Tulkarm this week in raids which it says are intended to root out militants after a Palestinian gunman killed five Israelis at a kibbutz in northern Israel on November 10.
(China Daily November 14, 2002)
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