Israeli strikes kill 3 Palestinians, wound 23

GAZA, Nov 1 (Reuters) Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen and a policeman and wounded 23 people in a series of air strikes and gun battles that erupted in northern Gaza on Wednesday, security sources and witnesses said.

Israeli infantry troops backed by armoured forces entered northern Gaza before dawn and gun battles ensued, followed by the air strikes, witnesses said.

One air strike killed a Palestinian policeman and in the clashes 23 people were wounded, including at least a dozen gunmen and civilians, among them a woman in a critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head, security sources said.

A second air strike killed a gunman, 23, and a gunman from the Islamic Hamas movement, who also served as a cabinet member's bodyguard, died from his injuries after one of the clashes, doctors said.

It took hours for ambulances to reach some casualties due to the intensity of the gunfire, witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed there was ''ground action in northern Gaza'' and said there had been two air strikes targeting gunmen either approaching troops or planting a bomb.

Separately, dozens of Israeli armoured vehicles massed at Israel's border with southern Gaza late yesterday.

A military official broke into local radio stations to urge Palestinians to evacuate an area of Rafah, near the frontier with Egypt, witnesses said.

Israel has stepped up military operations in the Gaza Strip since the capture of a soldier on June 25 in a cross-border raid. More than 270 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, about half of them civilians.

Israel, which says militants have stepped up arms smuggling into Gaza near Rafah, sends in troops periodically to try to find and destroy tunnels beneath the border and underground hideouts.

Israeli raids in northern Gaza are mostly aimed at preventing gunmen from firing rockets at southern Israeli towns.

Israel withdrew its army and Jewish settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation but tension has risen on the frontier since Hamas came to power after winning Palestinian elections in January.

The increased violence came after signs of movement on efforts to arrange a prisoner exchange for the release of captive Israeli soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured by Gaza militants, and two other soldiers captured by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in July.

A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo yesterday for talks, amid conflicting reports about progress on a possible prisoner exchange involving Palestinians jailed in Israel and Shalit.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said yesterday his group was in indirect negotiations with Israel through a U N-sponsored mediator over a prisoner exchange.

Reuters 1052