At least four Palestinians killed in Gaza clashes

GAZA, Oct 14 (Reuters) Israeli forces battled militants in the northern Gaza Strip today and at least four Hamas gunmen were killed, Palestinian security sources said.

A column of Israeli tanks backed by attack helicopters moved deep into an area east of the town of Jabalya. Militants responded with anti-tank fire.

Security sources said four Hamas militants were killed in the clashes when an Israeli rocket hit a house. At least 11 other Palestinians were injured, mostly militants.

Earlier, an Israeli air strike destroyed a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, witnesses and medics said.

Israeli forces yesterday killed four Palestinians, three of them Hamas militants, in the biggest upsurge of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip in weeks, residents said.

Almost 240 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in June to try to recover a captured soldier and stop cross-border rocket fire.

Hamas controls the Palestinian government and resumed rocket attacks on Israel earlier this week.

REUTERS SRS PM0730