Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians in Gaza raid

GAZA, June 27 (Reuters) Israeli forces today killed at least 10 Palestinians, most of them gunmen, in their biggest raid in the Gaza Strip since Hamas Islamists took over the territory two weeks ago, medical workers and residents said.

The operation in Gaza City and the southern town of Khan Younis appeared to signal that Israel intended to keep strong military pressure on Hamas along with its efforts to isolate the militant group financially and politically.

Local residents in the two battle zones said militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and detonated explosive devices in confrontations with Israeli infantry and armour.

Israeli forces killed three gunmen near Khan Younis and four militants and three civilians, including a 12-year-old boy, in Gaza City, medical workers and residents said, putting the number of wounded at more than 45.

At least three of the dead gunmen belonged to Hamas, which seized Gaza this month after routing forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah faction.

An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said an operation was under way, but she gave no specifics.

Israel pulled its forces and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 but has not stopped air strikes and other attacks against militant groups, which frequently launch rockets into southern Israel.

Despite Hamas's takeover of the coastal territory, the so-called Quartet of West Asia mediators -- the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- hopes to revive a peace process through Abbas in the occupied West Bank.

Washington expects Western powers to agree to name Tony Blair as their West Asia envoy soon after he steps down as British prime minister later in the day, diplomats said.

The Quartet would task Blair with working with Abbas on building up institutions needed for a future state.

Hamas, which came to power in a 2006 election, has rejected Western demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

REUTERS SYU PM1447