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Israeli troops kill 13 Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 July 2006, 14:04 CDT

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed 13 Palestinians in clashes in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank on Wednesday, medics said, as tanks pushed into a central Gaza refugee camp.

The Gaza raid was part of a three-week-old offensive to recover a captured soldier and halt rocket fire.

Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and militants in parts of central Gaza as the army pushed into the territory, killing nine Palestinians, including four militants and five civilians, in air strikes and other attacks.

Three of the militants were from the governing Islamist Hamas group. Gunmen from the faction, which is sworn to destroying Israel, and two other groups captured Israeli army Corporal Gilat Shalit in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Israel has killed about 110 Palestinians, nearly half of them militants, in Gaza since the abduction and has vowed to continue its offensive until the soldier is freed and militants stop firing rockets into Israel.

Israel says it will not free Palestinian prisoners for Shalit, a 19-year-old tank gunner, as demanded by Hamas.

About 60 Palestinians, including 10 children, were wounded in clashes in densely populated central Gaza on Wednesday, medics said. The Gaza Strip is home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops backed by armored vehicles surrounded a Palestinian security compound in the city of Nablus and killed three gunmen of Abbas's Fatah faction, medics said.

Soldiers killed a Palestinian civilian there later in the day as troops continued an offensive against militants. The army said it was checking the report and added that troops had confronted gunmen and civilians who had thrown rockets at them.

GAZA CLASHES

Troops also detained several Palestinian security men during the offensive in Nablus, an Israeli military source said.

Israeli bulldozers then tore down a building in Nablus used by the Hamas-led Interior Ministry as well as offices used by a security service that falls under Hamas's jurisdiction.

Israel has bombed several buildings in Gaza used by Hamas and the government it leads, including the office of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. It has also knocked out bridges, roads and a power plant in Gaza.

Because of the violence, Washington has stepped up the evacuation of Americans from Gaza. Officials said 68 U.S. nationals were pulled out of the strip on July 8 and another 104 on Wednesday.

Israel is also fighting Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon after they abducted two soldiers in a cross-border raid last week and killed eight others.

Israel has said it will continue fighting on both fronts until it gets its soldiers back and removes the threat on its borders.

Both Hizbollah and Palestinian militants have continued to fire rockets into Israel, though the Lebanese guerrillas have far more powerful and longer-range rockets than the homemade missiles used by the militants in Gaza.

Israel pulled troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Source: REUTERS

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