Child killed in Israeli raid as army tries to halt militants' rocket attacks

At least 12 Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy and two civilian men, were killed during the most lethal Israeli raids into Gaza since Hamas seized internal control of it two weeks ago, according to Palestinian medics.

The deaths occurred after Israeli forces moved into the eastern Gaza City neighbourhood of Shejaia and to an eastern section of the southern town of Khan Yunis, in what Ephraim Sneh, the Israeli deputy Defence Minister, described as "preventative measures" against rocket attacks into Israel.

Local residents as well as the Israeli military said militants had confronted the forces with rocket-propelled grenades and explosive devices and two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded by anti-tank missiles. Local sources said that 40 Palestinians had been injured during the incursions.

The civilian deaths reported by Palestinian sources were in Shajaia, where Reuters said that the body of a 12-year-old boy lay in the street, his arms twisted, near a house which local residents said had been hit by a tank shell that killed him and two other civilians.

The Israeli military acknowledged the firing of a tank shell in the area, which they said had been directed at a gunman, but said it had no knowledge of any civilian deaths. Four of the nine militants killed in the Israeli operation belonged to the military wing of Hamas, victorious in the five days of internal conflict the week before last. The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed the Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, of Hamas - in a move rejected by Mr Haniyeh - after what he described as a military "coup". But commenting on yesterday's Israeli raids, Mr Abbas said: "We strongly condemn these criminal acts, either in Gaza or the West Bank. We are against violence in all its forms and also we are against launching rockets [at Israel]."

Jamal Nazzal, a Fatah spokesman, condemned the raids and accused Israel of using Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip to try to justify "aggression against Palestinian civilians".

But Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, claimed that the incursions were part of a "conspiracy in which Abbas is a participant and which is aimed at pressuring Hamas and the people of Gaza".

Most of the other Palestinian militants killed yesterday appeared to be from Islamic Jihad, which claimed responsibility for at least one Qassam rocket fired into Israel yesterday. Two other rockets were fired into the western Negev desert and Palestinian militants also fired mortars at the Erez crossing into Israel. No Israeli injuries were reported. An Israel Air Force helicopter fired on Palestinian militants near the Karni cargo crossing yesterday but without reported casualties.

The Israeli military said, however, that it had not been responsible for the death of the senior Islamic Jihad militant Raed Fanuna, who was killed east of Gaza City when his car blew up, and that he had not been targeted by Israeli forces.