11-year-old boy among eight killed in Israeli tank raid on Gaza City

At least eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid into Gaza City yesterday - among them an 11-year-old boy, according to Palestinian doctors.

Witnesses identified two of the dead, in addition to the 11-year-old, as civilians The rest were believed to be militants.

The new violence overshadowed US efforts to restart the peace process as the US Middle East envoy, John Wolf, met with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmad Qurei, during his first visit to the region for months.

Israeli tanks moved into the Zeitoun neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Gaza City, before dawn yesterday morning. Heavy fighting broke out as around 200 Palestinian militants armed with Kalashnikovs, anti-tank rockets and explosives resisted the incursion, according to witnesses.

An Israeli army spokesman said the aim of the raid was to root out militants who fire rockets on the nearby Jewish settlement of Netzarim from Zeitoun. Local Palestinians confirmed that militants do use the fields nearby to fire on Netzarim, but denied Israeli claims that such an attack overnight triggered yesterday's incursion.

Ahmad abu Hamdi, a 22-year-old member of the Palestinian security forces, explained how he had been on duty in the area when the tanks arrived. He was under orders from commanders not to get involved in the fighting, but ran to help.

"[The Israelis] didn't let any ambulances through. After the Israelis withdrew we rushed to where they had been hit. I saw four bodies. One of them was a boy, maybe 13 or 14 years old."

Dr Muawiya Hassanein of Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital said an 11-year old boy was among the dead. The other civilians were Musa Dalul, 32, a local stonemason, and Sameh Toteh, a 17-year-old mechanic. The other five dead were believed to be militants - four from Islamic Jihad, and one from Hamas.

While the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, denied settlers' claims his office had identified seven settlements to be evacuated under his plan for unilateral withdrawal from parts of the occupied territories, Netzarim, on the edge of Gaza City and hard to defend, has long been considered likely to be evacuated in any peace deal.

Mr Wolf went to Ramallah to try to persuade Mr Qurei to hold a meeting with Mr Sharon, in an effort to restart the "roadmap" peace process. The US has accused both Israel and the Palestinians of failing to carry out their commitments under the roadmap.

"This continuous aggression against our people should be stopped," Mr Qurei told Mr Wolf of the Gaza incursion.