Israeli Troops Raid Gaza Neighborhood, Two Dead
By REUTERS


Filed at 10:20 p.m. ET

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli armor rumbled into a Palestinian neighborhood in the Gaza Strip early on Monday, sparking a gunbattle in which at least two Palestinians were killed and 10 wounded, witnesses and medical sources said.

The raid came in the midst of a visit to the region by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who held talks with Israeli officials and was to meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat later on Monday in a new drive to end two years of Middle East bloodshed.

More than two dozen Israeli tanks and armored vehicles entered the al-Amal neighborhood west of Khan Younis, bordering the Jewish settlement of Ganei Tal, and were met by a volley of gunfire from local gunmen, residents said.

The circumstances of the raid were not immediately clear. On Sunday night, the Israeli army said Palestinian militants in Gaza had fired a Qassam rocket which hit a house under construction in a nearby settlement, identified by Israeli media as Ganei Tal, causing no injuries.

The Israeli gunfire killed a 40-year-old Palestinian man, who died from a bullet to the stomach, and a 50-year-old Palestinian woman, hospital officials said.

Palestinian witnesses said that Israeli forces had fired a single missile into the second storey of a house inside the al-Amal neighborhood just before the start of the raid, wounding three members of one family.

Ambulances were not immediately able to evacuate them from the house, which was surrounded by troops, they said.

Israeli troops have frequently raided areas of Gaza in response to the shooting of mortar bombs or Qassam rockets since a Palestinian uprising against occupation began two years ago.

An Israeli military source confirmed an operation was taking place in the area but would not give details