Israel kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza clashes

Gaza, Nov 24: Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians including a boy in clashes in Gaza today and the government said its assault would end only if gunmen stopped attacking the Jewish state from the strip.

Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded in fighting in northern Gaza when gunmen detonated an explosive device near troops, the army said.

The latest ground and air offensive, about a week old, has sought to curb an upsurge of militant rocket fire at Israel.

Palestinian hospital officials said the 10-year-old boy was shot dead east of the town of Beit Lahiya. Israel's army said it was checking the report.

The governing Hamas Islamist movement said the other dead Palestinian was a militant and cameraman from the faction's armed wing who filmed Hamas fighters in action.

Palestinian factions yesterday offered a limited ceasefire by saying they would stop firing rockets if Israel halted military action in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The offer did not include suicide bombings and Israel swiftly rejected it.

''If the Palestinian terror factions, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, stop terror activities from the Gaza Strip, Israel would have no reason or incentive to operate in Gaza,'' said Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Hamas spokesman Ismail Rudwan said there would be no calm while Israel kept up its raids.

''If the aggression stops and if massacres and the killing stops, it would be natural for the rockets to return to their resting place,'' Rudwan said.

Israel has killed nearly 400 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, since it began its offensive in June following the abduction of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, hospital officials and residents say.

Three soldiers have been killed.

Row Over Unity Govt

The fresh fighting coincides with a visit to Gaza by President Mahmoud Abbas of the once dominant Fatah faction, who has been meeting Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to try to revive talks on forging a unity government. Hamas accused Abbas today of imposing what it called unacceptable conditions for a unity cabinet, including the release of the Israeli soldier and a halt to attacks by Hamas and other groups on Israel.

Palestinians hope a unity government will be able to convince Western nations to renew aid to the Palestinian Authority after sanctions were imposed because of Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

''Mr Abu Mazen (Abbas) has started putting new conditions which were not included in the understandings and agreements we have concluded to form a unity government,'' said a Hamas statement from Damascus, where many of its leaders live in exile.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Abbas, said Hamas had ''invented'' the idea the president was imposing new terms, saying they had been on the table for months.

''This is the latest trick by the Hamas leadership to portray itself to the public as not being responsible for the destruction of the internal Palestinian situation and to put the consequences on president Abu Mazen,'' Abed Rabbo said.

Hamas took office in March after beating Fatah in elections.

Reuters