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Israel kills 4 in Gaza raid
06/01/2008 20:53 - (SA)
Gaza - Israeli troops killed four
Palestinians in a raid into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on
Sunday, witnesses said, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to
step up attacks on militants who fire rockets into Israel.
Palestinian hospital officials said three of the dead in the
al-Bureij refugee camp were civilians - a woman, an 18-year-old
man and a 16-year-old youth. The fourth was a gunman killed in
battle with the Israelis. His faction was not immediately known.
Militants fired an anti-tank rocket, wounding several
Israeli soldiers, during a raid which raised tension before US
President George W Bush's visit to Israel and the occupied West
Bank starting on Wednesday.
The fighting also wounded at least 25 Palestinians.
Olmert told his Cabinet that Defence Minister Ehud Barak had
ordered security forces "to escalate Israel's actions" in the
coastal territory after a rocket fired by militants last week
reached an unprecedented distance, hitting the Israeli city of
Ashkelon.
Israel has stepped up attacks against militants in Gaza to
try to curb cross-border rocket salvoes from the territory.
Olmert said Israeli military operations had already yielded
"very significant results" against militant targets in Gaza,
seized in June by Hamas after routing Abbas's secular Fatah
forces.
Bush will visit Israel and the occupied West Bank to spur
renewed peace talks between Olmert and Abbas.
- Reuters
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