Israeli troops gun down Palestinians

In the first attack, the troops shot dead a 60-year-old woman in a refugee camp and wounded four other Palestinians.

Witnesses and medics said the shooting occurred as Israeli tanks took up positions on the edges of the Khan Yunis camp on Monday.

Israeli military sources said its forces had moved in during an operation against "terrorist infrastructure", but did not elaborate.

Palestinian security sources said three tank shells were also fired into the camp and that Israeli troops used machine guns from helicopters.

However, an Israeli army spokesman said the machine-gun fire was intended to prevent Palestinian resistance fighters from approaching the tanks.

More killings

In the second attack, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces opened fire on three Palestinians, killing them.

Israeli military sources alleged Palestinians were approaching an illegal Jewish settlement.

Violence has surged in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces prepare to remove troops and colonists in a pullout that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to complete by the end of 2005.

An internal Palestinian power struggle has also spilled over into lawlessness and has been marked by demands for President Yasir Arafat to carry out anti-corruption reforms in his Palestinian Authority and security forces.

Aljazeera + Agencies
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At least three Palestinians have been killed and 16 injured in an Israeli aerial attack on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

The Palestinians were shot in an early morning raid on Rafah's Yibna refugee camp, located along Gaza's border with Egypt.

Israeli Apache helicopters, backed by armoured tanks and bulldozers, fired three missiles at a residential quarter of the camp, killing 18-year-old Muhammad Abu al-Nada, 19-year-old Masira Abu Sanima, and 31-year-old Akram al-Habibi in the process.

Two of the bodies were badly burned and decapitated, say witnesses. Aljazeera correspondent Hiba Akila said the three dead were members of Hamas's military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

Seventeen bystanders including Reuters cameraman Bassam Masud, were injured in the attack, according to Dr Ali Musa, director of the Abu Yusuf al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah.

The Israeli army denies any involvement in the incident, saying a Palestinian bomb that detonated earlier was to blame.

Aljazeera has received a statement issued by Hamas's military wing, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claiming responsibility for detonating four explosive devices in four Israeli bulldozers in Yibna.

The movement has also fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Israeli troop carrier, the statement said.

More than 15 tanks and armoured bulldozers are continuing to operate in Block O of the camp, according to UNRWA field officer Jamal Hamad.

"People are fleeing their homes; they are very scared," said Hamad.

"There is an ongoing exchange of fire, and Israeli troops are responding with heavy fire and tank shells."

Hamad says tanks have reached as far as the UN clinic, well beyond the border and the centre of town.

Widespread destruction

During the raid, Israeli occupation army bulldozers also razed to the ground several acres of agricultural land and demolished six houses near the border with Egypt.

The UN says Israel has been following a policy of "levelling" and systemically demolishing houses in Rafah to make way for a "security" buffer zone in what has come to be known as the "Philedelphi Corridor". Israel claims arms smuggling tunnels underlie the demolitions.

Rafah has been the scene of continuous Israeli onslaught since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, the most egregious of which took place in May of this year. Fifty-five Palestinians were killed and more than 200 others injured in the attack, and about 3500 made homeless.

Siege expansion

Also in Gaza, Israeli troops for the second night in a row fired heavy artillery haphazardly at residents near the Tal al-Zaatar neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jabaliya. One Palestinian was treated for shock.

Palestinians in Jabaliya fear Israeli troops are thinking of expanding their month-long siege of neighbouring Bait Hanun, after Israeli officers admitted they have been unsuccessful at preventing the firing of homemade Qassam rockets into Israel by closing off the town.

The northern Gaza Strip village of 30,000 has been under siege since 30 June, when Israeli forces launched an incursion with the stated aim of creating a security zone after rockets fired into the Negev town of Sderot by Palestinian resistance fighters claimed their first fatalities.

Since that date, 16 Palestinians have been killed and more than 90 injured, and about 2600 dunums of agricultural land cleared.

Aljazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BC1CEE3-0361-44BE-8703-201C8475A2B2.htm