Israeli war games simulate Syrian, Palestinan assault

SHIZAFON MILITARY BASE, Israel -- F-16 warplanes dropped explosives, tanks charged across the desert firing cannons and infantrymen went house-to-house hurling grenades in war games that Israel staged Wednesday as a show of strength at a time of confrontation with the Palestinians and Syria.

Troops destroyed simulated Syrian fortifications before conquering a mock Palestinian village -- complete with a billboard of a smiling Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

The public display of firepower came as Israeli forces wound up the second week of their largest offensive in the Gaza Strip in four years of conflict, taking control of another Palestinian town in northern Gaza earlier in the day.

More than 2,000 Israeli troops rolled into northern Gaza after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed two children in an Israeli town just outside Gaza.

Tensions have also increased with Syria, with Israel accusing its longtime enemy of backing Palestinian militants carrying out suicide attacks. A Hamas leader was killed in Damascus last month in a car bombing that Syria blamed on Israel.

During the past four years of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence -- much of it in crowded towns and refugee camps -- the army has had to develop new urban warfare tactics, said Maj. Gen. Iftach Ron-Tal, the ground forces commander.

Ron-Tal said experience and new technologies have allowed infantry, armor, combat engineers, field intelligence and the air force to work together in built-up areas.

But the live-fire display at a desert training base in southern Israel began with a demonstration of Israel's conventional military tactics -- a simulated attack on its old enemy, Syria.

Warplanes screamed through the sky, dropping bombs on a hill. Tanks then opened fire, sending flames and plumes of black smoke into the air.

Infantry snipers pinged bullets off metal targets and machine-gunners popped balloons representing Syrian soldiers.

The assault ended with the engineering corps clearing mines and laying bridges over tank traps so the armor and infantry could smash through the final defenses.