Middle East: Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians in fighting in southern Gaza's Rafah refugee camp yesterday, Palestinian doctors said, at the start of what Israel indicated was a four-day military operation to locate and seal tunnels used by Hamas and other extremist groups to smuggle arms into Gaza under the adjacent border with Egypt, writes David Horovitz in Jerusalem
Two of the dead were children aged 8 and 12, the doctors said. At least two others were Palestinian gunmen, some of whom fired on troops and threw hand-grenades during hours of fighting. Most of the fatalities occurred when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into a group of people. The army said it was directed at gunmen.
The raid is one of the largest mounted in months in the camp, and constitutes part of Israel's military response to a suicide bombing in Haifa last Saturday in which 20 Israelis were killed, Israeli military officials said.
The army sent in the troops, they added, after receiving intelligence reports that Palestinians groups were now trying to smuggle in anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles - which could threaten the assault helicopters Israel frequently uses and, if transferred from Gaza to the central West Bank, could threaten civilian aircraft using Israel's main Ben-Gurion International airport.
Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator, accused Israel of behaving with "utter arrogance and lawlessness". More than 40 Palestinians were also injured in the fighting.
