Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Gaza raid

GAZA, Nov 23 (Reuters) Israeli troops backed by tanks killed a Palestinian civilian in a raid in the northern Gaza Strip today, Palestinian hospital officials said.

Residents said the Israeli troops thrust into the town of Beit Lahiya, a day after the security cabinet decided to press on with military incursions but not order a large-scale assault in response to a wave of Palestinian rocket attacks.

Tanks firing machineguns stormed a housing project in the town, killing a 19-year-old male civilian, the hospital officials said. Another civilian was wounded, they said.

The Israeli army said it was checking the reports.

The residents said it was one of the biggest raids into Beit Lahiya since Israel launched an offensive in late June after gunmen, including members of the governing Hamas movement, abducted a soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza.

Palestinian militants use the area round the town to fire rockets at southern Israel.

Israel has said the raids would not stop until the soldier, Gilad Shalit, was freed and rocket attacks stopped.

The increasingly sophisticated rockets, generally made in metal workshops, killed two Israelis in the past week.

Israel has killed more than 370 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, since it began the offensive, hospital officials and residents say. Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.

PRISONER EXCHANGE In a sign of possible progress in efforts to arrange an exchange of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for Shalit, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal arrived in Cairo today to discuss Egyptian mediation efforts for a swap.

Meshaal lives in exile in Damascus.

''The delegation, led by Khaled Meshaal, will follow up on Egyptian efforts to reach a deal acceptable to the Palestinian people,'' Izzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas member, told Reuters.

A lower-level Hamas delegation visited Cairo late last month for inconclusive talks with Egyptian officials on a possible exchange involving hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Some Israeli ministers had wanted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to approve tougher action to halt rocket attacks from Gaza.

But a large-scale offensive holds political risks for Mr Olmert, whose popularity plummeted in opinion polls after Israel failed to crush Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in a July-August war.

The security cabinet ordered the military to prepare and present a plan for a broader operation.

Palestinian militants say the rocket attacks are a response to Israeli assaults, including a November 8 artillery barrage that killed 19 civilians in the town of Beit Hanoun. Israel said it made a targeting error.

Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers quit Gaza more than a year ago after 38 years of occupation.

REUTERS AKJ DS1150