Four Palestinians killed in Gaza clashes

GAZA, Oct 12 (Reuters) Israeli forces killed three Palestinian gunmen and a bystander during a raid in the Gaza Strip today, pressing an almost 4-month offensive launched after a soldier was abducted, witnesses and medics said.

They said troops backed by helicopter gunships entered the central village of Abassan under dark, touching off clashes. There was no immediate word on the affiliations of the dead gunmen. The slain bystander was a 14-year-old boy, medics said.

The Israeli army confirmed its forces were operating in the area, saying they were looking for facilities used by militants waging a 6-year-old Palestinian revolt. Troops fired on gunmen who tried to attack them, an army spokesman said.

''This is an area believed to conceal tunnels and other forms of infrastructure used by terrorist groups,'' he said.

Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 after a 38-year occupation in what it case as a spur to revive peace talks.

But violence continued around the impoverished coastal territory, culminating in a June 25 cross-border raid in which Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers and abducted a third, Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Israel has since mounted several major military operations in Gaza which it said were aimed to retrieve Shalit and stem cross-border rocket fire by militants. Around 230 Palestinians, half of them civilians, have been killed.

The governing Palestinian faction Hamas, some of whose gunmen took part in Shalit's abduction, says the soldier should be traded for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The Israeli government has publicly refused a prisoner swap although political sources expect it to relent as part of an Egyptian-brokered deal.

REUTERS DKB BD0951