Gaza: Israel kills 3; town curfew briefly lifted

Gaza, Nov 4: Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in Gaza TOday including two gunmen in air strikes and clashes, rescue workers said, and the army briefly lifted a curfew on a town at the centre of a major offensive.

One of the gunmen was killed in battles with Israeli soldiers near the northern town of Beit Hanoun, witnesses said.

Militants fired anti-tank rockets at troops, they added. It was unclear if there were any Israeli casualties.

The violence came a day after Israel killed 17 people, about half of them civilians and including two women acting as human shields between troops and gunmen hiding in a mosque in Beit Hanoun. Israel's army said it only fired at armed Palestinians.

Israel says the operation, one of the biggest since the army and Jewish settlers pulled out of Gaza a year ago after 38 years of occupation, aims to halt rocket fire at the Jewish state.

The violence has scuttled hopes of any resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, already a remote prospect since the Hamas militant group took power in March following elections. Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction.

One air strike on a van in Gaza City killed a Hamas gunman, rescue workers said. The army said it attacked militants involved in firing rockets at Israel.

In Beit Hanoun, near the Israeli border and the focus of the army's operation, the body of a 46-year-old man was found under the rubble of a house hit in an air strike, rescue workers said.

At least 13 other people were wounded in missiles strikes and tank shelling, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Israeli forces have killed around 30 people in the four-day assault. Beit Hanoun, home to 30,000 Palestinians, has been under curfew since troops effectively seized it.

Today, soldiers using loudspeakers told residents the curfew had been raised for two hours to allow women to buy food, witnesses said.

Israel kills 3 in Gaza, town curfew briefly lifted The Beit Hanoun operation is part of a broader offensive launched in late June following the abduction of an Israeli soldier by militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza. Since the start of that offensive nearly 300 Palestinians have been killed, about half of them civilians. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.

HUMAN SHIELDS

The killing of the two unarmed women in Beit Hanoun, captured by television cameras and broadcast around the world, provoked an angry response from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate who favours peace negotiations with Israel.

He demanded immediate UN intervention in the conflict.

More than 50 veiled women, answering an appeal broadcast on local radio, worked their way between Israeli forces and the mosque, eventually allowing around 60 gunmen, who had been holed up inside for more than 15 hours, to escape.

The Israeli army said it was investigating whether it had shot the women and said it did not target civilians.

Palestinian militants have fired around 300 homemade missiles at Israel this year from Gaza, Israel says. They mostly cause minor injuries or panic.

In violence in the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a local leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group in a raid on a house in Bethlehem, Palestinian security sources said. The army said it killed the man after an exchange of fire.

REUTERS