Gaza City, Sept 12: Israeli tanks raided the fringes of Gaza city today in the latest of the increasingly frequent raids in the territory, while in Ramallah Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat scrambled to retain his authority after a humiliating defeat in Parliament.
As the tanks rumbled into the eastern neighborhoods of al-Shujaiyah and al-Muntar, clashes erupted between the encroaching Israeli armour and Palestinian gunmen trying to oppose them.
There were no reports of injuries in the clashes.
At al-Shujaiyah, the army blew up the home of a militant from the radical Islamic group Hamas, witnesses said. Six other houses were damaged in the explosion although there were no reports of injuries.

Four tanks and an Israeli bulldozer also staged a brief incursion into the al-Mughazi refugee camp, south of the city, where they demolished two houses, Palestinian security sources said.
After destroying the houses the troops pulled out.
Palestinian security officials said that tanks and bulldozers also moved around 500 metres into Rafah town on the southern border with Egypt, where they destroyed three houses. There were no exchanges of fire, they said.
Israeli military sources said that several home-made mortar rounds had been fired toward Israeli territory and at Israeli targets within the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have stepped up their large-scale raids of the Gaza Strip in the past weeks, mirroring similar operations in the West Bank while stopping short of the massive invasion which brought almost the whole of the latter territory under their control. Bureau Report