Gaza offensive toll up to 100

GAZA – Israeli air strikes killed five Palestinians in Gaza yesterday as the Palestinian death toll rose to 100 in a 16-day-old army offensive aimed at crushing militants behind rocket salvoes into Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is seeking a decisive triumph over militants to overcome rightist opposition to his plan to “disengage” from conflict with Palestinians by evacuating all Jewish settlers from Gaza and a few from the West Bank in 2005. Missiles killed two Hamas gunmen in the sprawling urban Jabalya refugee camp in north Gaza, stormed by more than 200 tanks and troop carriers after a Hamas rocket killed two toddlers across the border in Israel on Sept.29.Helicopters backing up a separate army raid into Rafah refugee camp in Gaza’s far south fired three missiles, killing two militants and a civilian man of 70, local medics and residents said.A woman was seriously wounded.Military sources said Israeli forces targeted gunmen who had just launched an anti-tank rocket at troops operating to uncover tunnels used to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.Officials with the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Israeli armoured bulldozers demolished about 30 houses, leaving about 40 people homeless, before the armed forces withdrew at around daybreak from Rafah.The cinderblock camp is, like Jabalya, a frequent tinderbox in the four-year-old Palestinian revolt against Israel.Israeli forces often raze Palestinian buildings they say harbour militants who fire at them or, in Rafah’s case, camouflage smuggling tunnels.Palestinians and human rights groups denounce the practice as collective punishment.Israeli troops rooting around for elusive Hamas rocket squads in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, next to Jabalya, also left a trail of destruction yesterday.- Nampa-ReutersMissiles killed two Hamas gunmen in the sprawling urban Jabalya refugee camp in north Gaza, stormed by more than 200 tanks and troop carriers after a Hamas rocket killed two toddlers across the border in Israel on Sept.29.Helicopters backing up a separate army raid into Rafah refugee camp in Gaza’s far south fired three missiles, killing two militants and a civilian man of 70, local medics and residents said.A woman was seriously wounded.Military sources said Israeli forces targeted gunmen who had just launched an anti-tank rocket at troops operating to uncover tunnels used to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.Officials with the UN agency caring for Palestinian refugees said Israeli armoured bulldozers demolished about 30 houses, leaving about 40 people homeless, before the armed forces withdrew at around daybreak from Rafah.The cinderblock camp is, like Jabalya, a frequent tinderbox in the four-year-old Palestinian revolt against Israel.Israeli forces often raze Palestinian buildings they say harbour militants who fire at them or, in Rafah’s case, camouflage smuggling tunnels.Palestinians and human rights groups denounce the practice as collective punishment.Israeli troops rooting around for elusive Hamas rocket squads in the north Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, next to Jabalya, also left a trail of destruction yesterday.- Nampa-Reuters