Gaza City, May 14: Israeli troops carried out fresh raids into the Gaza Strip today, killing three Palestinian policemen in a gunbattle near a Jewish settlement, while dozens of Palestinians were wounded and several buildings destroyed in another incursion. On the diplomatic front, meanwhile, skirmishing over the implementation of the so-called roadmap for peace in the Middle East continued.
Three members of the Palestinian Security Services were killed and three others wounded in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli military sources said an Israeli unit including tanks and backed by a helicopter engaged four armed Palestinians in a sector from which anti-tank rockets and mortar bombs had been fired at the settlement of Netzarim.
The army also raided an area in the southern city of Khan Yunis, firing a missile from a helicopter, which wounded 23 Palestinians, the sources added.
Armoured vehicles then entered the flashpoint autonomous area near Tefeha checkpoint, which guards the road leading to Mawasi, a Palestinian enclave that lies inside the sprawling settlement bloc of Gush Katif. Three more Palestinians were wounded in exchanges of fire and the Israeli Army withdrew after dynamiting three four-floor buildings, which military sources said were empty and used by Palestinian snipers.
However, Palestinian security sources said some of the 22 flats reduced to rubble were inhabited and that the occupants were evacuated by the troops before they were blown up. Bureau Report