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Israel’s mission to save 19-year-old soldier Gilad Shalit continued through the night and morning. Troops entered Gaza:

Palestinians dug in behind walls and embankments in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, bracing for a major assault after Israel sent in troops and tanks and bombarded bridges and a power station to pressure militants to release a captured soldier.

No casualties were reported.

It was Israel’s first ground offensive since it pulled all of its soldiers and settlers out of Gaza last summer, and Palestinians, holed up at home, were bracing for a major strike. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wouldn’t balk at “extreme action” to bring the soldier home, but had no intention of reoccupying Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deplored the incursion as a “crime against humanity,” and a leading Hamas politician issued a call to arms against the Israeli troops.

Overnight, Israeli tanks and soldiers began taking up positions east of the Gaza town of Rafah under cover of tank shells, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

Israeli warplanes fired at least nine missiles at Gaza’s only power station, cutting electricity to 65 percent of the Gaza Strip, engineers at the station said. The station’s three functioning turbines and a gasoline reservoir were engulfed in flames, raising the specter of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where water pumps are powered by electricity.

The Israeli military said in a statement that three bridges were attacked “to impair the ability of the terrorists to transfer the kidnapped soldier,” Cpl. Gilad Shalit, 19. Knocking down the bridges cut Gaza in two, Palestinian security officials said.

Dave at Israelly Cool is liveblogging Operation Summer Rains with comprehensive coverage. He notes that Israeli website are being hacked and notes an unconfirmed report that a body has been found–”assumed to be that of kidnapped teenager Eliyahu Asheri.”

Pajamas Media also has a growing rundown of blog coverage and breaking news.

Carl in Jerusalem weighs in on the “the complete and utter failure of the Sharon-Olmert ‘unilateralism.’”

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