Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Sunday Israel would expand the deadliest Gaza offensive in four years, keeping troops in the area indefinitely. Sharon said he was determined to halt rocket fire on towns inside Israel and shelling of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. Other Israeli officials said the raid would not establish a permanent Israeli presence in Gaza. In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian legislators planned to meet Sunday in an emergency session to discuss the Gaza crisis. Israel poured 2,000 troops into the northern Gaza Strip after a Palestinian rocket attack on Wednesday killed two preschoolers in the town of Sderot. Since then, 55 Palestinians and three more Israelis have been killed. In the Jebaliya refugee camp, the scene of the bloodiest fighting, troops and tanks pulled back a few dozens meters (yards) overnight, leaving behind a swath of destruction. Bulldozers destroyed rows of homes, uprooted orchards and tore up roads. U.N. officials said dozens of people were made homeless.
