Israel kills 5 Palestinians in Gaza, encircle gunmen

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza, Nov 2 (Reuters) Israeli troops killed five Palestinians including three civilians and trapped scores of gunmen in Gaza today, witnesses said, as the army pursued one of its biggest offensives in the strip in months.

The armed wing of the ruling Hamas Islamist movement said its gunmen hit a group of Israeli soldiers with an anti-tank missile in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, inflicting casualties. The army said it had no information on the attack.

Witnesses said around 60 militants were holed up inside the centre of Beit Hanoun, with army helicopters circling overhead.

Soldiers loaded many residents into trucks and took them to the edge of Beit Hanoun for questioning, witnesses said. They said it was one of the biggest roundups of Gazans in years.

''I urge all women in Gaza to go to the besieged area to help stop the Israeli army from killing the Mujahideen (fighters),'' one caller to a local radio station said.

The offensive has further weakened any chance of resuming peace talks, already minimal since Hamas took office in March after winning elections. Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Hamas has said the bloodshed could also complicate Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at arranging a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for an Israeli soldier abducted by militants in a cross-border raid last June.

Beit Hanoun, a town of 30,000 people in northern Gaza, was effectively under an army curfew, residents said.

While the army operation is aimed partly at halting rocket fire at the Jewish state from the area, militants still managed to launch four homemade missiles at the nearby Israeli border town of Sderot, wounding two people, medical officials said.

ARMY QUESTIONING An Israeli army spokeswoman said all men in Beit Hanoun had been asked to gather in one place to answer questions. ''I have no doubt that the vast majority will then be allowed to return home unhindered. This is intended to avoid friction and reduce shooting incidents,'' she said.

The latest casualties, confirmed by hospital officials, bring to 14 the number of Palestinians killed since Israeli troops entered Beit Hanoun yesterday.

One Israeli soldier has been killed in the raid. More than half the Palestinians killed were militants.

''Residents are in panic as the sound of gunfire and explosions never stops. The curfew is very, very tight,'' said Yamen Hamad, a local journalist in Beit Hanoun.

Relatives said one of the civilians killed today, a 75-year-old man, was shot by troops on a rooftop when he went onto the balcony of his home to bring his disabled son inside.

The army said its forces were targeting only militants.

The assault is one of the biggest in the Palestinian territories since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to try to force the release of the captured soldier and halt rocket fire.

More than 280 Palestinians have been killed in the four-month-old offensive, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israel withdrew its army and Jewish settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation, but tension increased along the frontier when Hamas took office and rebuffed Western demands to recognise Israel and renounce violence. That prompted the West to impose sanctions on the Palestinian government.

While opposed to explicit recognition of Israel, some Hamas officials have tried to formulate wording that suggests a softer position as part of efforts to agree a unity government with the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate.

A senior Hamas official said on Thursday that talks on forming a coalition government, on and off for weeks, had made progress but did not announce any concrete development.

Palestinians hope such a government would help restore direct Western aid. Political sources in Gaza said there might be an announcement about progress later on Thursday.

REUTERS