Israeli artillery shelling destroyed the major power transmitter in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday night, Palestinian witnesses and security sources said.

The witnesses said that several explosions were heard when the transmitter was hit by Israeli tank shells, adding that flames of fire and black smoke were seen billowing up from the destroyed transmitter.

The transmitter supplied electricity to the northern Gaza towns of Beit Hanon, Beit Lahia and Jabalia and its destruction led to electricity cut to more than two third of the population there.

Israeli airstrikes destroyed the only Gaza power plant on early Wednesday, which resulted in a blackout in most areas of the Gaza Strip.

Walid Sayel, executive director of the Gaza central power plant estimated the loss from Israel's destroying the power plant and the northern Gaza transmitter at more than 20 million U.S. dollars.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that another Israeli shell hit a post of the Palestinian security forces in northern Gaza, wounding three security officers who were rushed to nearby hospitals by ambulances.

Israeli troops crossed the border and entered the southern Gaza Strip on early Wednesday in their first major ground offensive in Gaza since Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the coastal strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Israel says the operation is aimed to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants on Sunday.

Several bridges and roads linking the north and the south of the Gaza Strip were also destroyed in Israeli air raids, a move which the Israeli army said was to prevent Palestinian militants from transferring the kidnapped soldier.

Source: Xinhua