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Israeli troops kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza City

Israeli troops moved into a neighborhood at the eastern edge of Gaza City early yesterday, killing four Palestinians and wounding 13 others in exchanges of fire, residents said.

The sounds of the fierce battle reverberated throughout the city as dawn broke. Two of the dead were militants, including a leader of Hamas, and another was an armed Palestinian policeman, residents in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood and hospital officials said. Thirteen were wounded, five critically, they said.

The military said troops fired in response to anti-tank missiles shot at tanks in the operation to search for militants responsible for firing rockets against Jewish settlements.

Also, Israeli forces including 10 tanks and three armored bulldozers moved into the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, residents said. Three Palestinians were injured in exchanges of fire in the area, they said. The military said soldiers were looking for tunnels used by Palestinians to smuggle in weapons.

On Tuesday, the chief of Israeli military intelligence said evacuation of Israeli settlements, part of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's emerging disengagement plan, could be interpreted as a victory for terrorism.

Major General Aharon Zeevi-Farkash briefed a top parliamentary committee about the Gaza plan but did not express an opinion.

Sharon has said he would take unilateral steps if talks on a US-backed peace plan, the "road map," remain bogged down. These would include imposing a temporary boundary in the West Bank and removal of isolated settlements.

The boundary would be based on the barrier Israel is building along the West Bank, but dipping deep into the territory in several places. The Israelis say they need the barrier to keep suicide bombers out, but Palestinians charge that the project is a massive land grab to prevent them from forming a state,

Last week Sharon indicated he would remove up to 17 of the 20 settlements in the Gaza Strip, shocking hardline colleagues from his Likud Party and threatening stability of his coalition government.

As part of such a withdrawal, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz plans to keep troops positioned in the Gush Katif block of settlements in Gaza.
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