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7 killed in Gaza fighting
11/04/2008 16:17 - (SA)
Gaza City - Israeli forces launched air strikes and a ground raid on Gaza on Friday, trading fire with gunmen in clashes that killed seven Palestinians including a 12-year-old boy, Palestinians said.
The deaths drove the Palestinian death toll to 13 in Israeli strikes retaliating for a militant attack that killed two Israeli civilians at a vital Gaza fuel depot on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has pledged to keep hitting Hamas so that it cannot "continue to operate against Israeli civilians as it does."
An Israeli aircraft killed two Hamas militants in a strike on southern Gaza early on Friday, the group said. The Israeli military confirmed the attack, saying it targeted gunmen near the Gaza-Israel border fence.
Israeli troops crossed into central Gaza and clashed with gunmen in the area. A 12-year-old boy was fatally shot in the stomach and six other Palestinians were wounded, medics said.
Cut back fuel shipments
Later in the day Israeli forces fired at a group of Palestinian militants operating near a farm in central Gaza, killing four people and wounding several, including children, witnesses and doctors said.
The brazen daylight attack on the Nahal Oz terminal between Gaza and Israel killed two civilian workers and prompted Israel to close the facility, which supplies all the fuel for Gaza's 1.4 million residents.
Israeli officials indicated the cut-off would not last past the weekend. An earlier Israeli plan to cut back fuel shipments in response to rocket attacks by Gaza militants were shelved under international pressure.
Israel and the Abbas government blame Hamas for the fuel crisis in Gaza, charging that it seizes large amounts of fuel for its own use.
Israeli army spokesperson Peter Lerner said that Hamas takes about half of the fuel supplied to Gaza, and uses it for vehicles launching rockets at Israel while the Hamas government says it takes about half of the reduced fuel supply for hospitals and local services.
Continue negotiations
Olmert also said on Thursday that Israel "will continue to hold serious and responsible negotiations that can lead us to agreements" with Palestinian moderates.
Olmert and Abbas have said they hope to reach an agreement by the end of this year and there were no signs that the latest round of bloodshed would derail talks.
All the fuel Gaza's 1.4 million residents need for transportation, cooking and generating electricity is sent from Israel through Nahal Oz. Wednesday's killings drew charges that Islamic extremists were trying to provoke another round of violence with Israel, while putting Israel in the position of appearing to cause a humanitarian crisis.
Mujahid Salameh, an official in the West Bank-based Petroleum Agency, said Hamas last month appropriated about 500 000l, or about one-fifth of the total fuel delivered to the territory.
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