11 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid on Gaza Strip

Israeli tanks and troops stormed a Gaza Strip refugee camp, carrying out raids in which 11 Palestinians were killed a day after a suicide bomber killed 15 people on an Israeli bus.

Amid the bloodshed yesterday, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat asked Mahmoud Abbas, often a back-channel between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli leaders, to be the Authority's prime minister in fresh political movement.

Palestinian witnesses said eight people were killed when an Israeli tank fired a shell at a crowd, but Israel's army denied firing on civilians and said most deaths were caused when Palestinian militants detonated bombs meant for Israeli forces.

More than 140 Palestinians were wounded during the nine-hour Israeli operation at Jabalya camp, part of a spasm of violence that has battered Washington's hopes of calming a 29-month-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict ahead of possible war on Iraq.

The militant Islamic group Hamas, which has been behind a wave of suicide attacks on Israelis, vowed revenge.

"The Jews will pay a dear price," senior Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi told Reuters.
Gaza hospitals were overwhelmed with wounded, many of them children pleading for help. "God help us, we are running out of medicine, we are running out of blood," a doctor shouted.

The Israeli army launched the Gaza operation hours after the first Palestinian suicide bombing in two months ripped through a bus packed with high school students in the port city of Haifa on Wednesday. A 14-year-old American girl was among the dead.

U.S. President George W. Bush issued veiled criticism of Israel over the Palestinian deaths after condemning the bombing.

"Israel suffered a terrible attack at the hands of terrorists at Haifa. Israel has a right to defend itself," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

"But the president reminds Israel about (his view that) any actions they take must be done with an eye toward protecting innocent Palestinians."

The European Union called on both sides to end the bloodshed in a Palestinian uprising for an independent state.

Abbas, who has met Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon several times and is known as a relative moderate among Palestinian officials, said he was waiting for details of the powers of prime minister before deciding whether to accept.

The senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official said he was not interested if it was only symbolic. "I will respond positively or negatively after I know what powers the prime minister will have," he told Reuters.

Arafat has been under intense pressure from the United States and the EU to reform the Palestinian Authority and appoint a powerful prime minister to take over day-to-day running of the Palestinian Authority. Israel has blamed the Authority for failing to rein in militants.

In Jabalya, Israeli helicopters raked streets with machinegun fire, trying to pick off Palestinian gunmen scrambling to take up positions.

Around 90,000 people are crammed into the camp, a hotbed of militancy in the Palestinian uprising.

Palestinian witnesses and medics said two headless bodies lay on the ground after a tank round crashed into a crowd. Bloodied survivors crawled or were dragged through dirt streets.

Palestinian medical officials said five of the fatalities ranged in age from 13 to 16 and a 60-year-old man was also shot dead. Israeli government officials said most, if not all, of the Palestinians killed were gunmen.

Two Palestinian journalists working for Reuters were among those wounded in an explosion near the burning buildings. Photographer Ahmed Jadallah was hit by shrapnel in both legs. Television cameraman Shams Odeh suffered a fractured foot.

Commercial buildings caught fire in the camp during the raid and residents flocked to the streets to watch firemen hosing down the blazes.

The army said it had done the utmost to avoid civilian casualties and that the tank shell it fired had hit a man standing in an empty street aiming a rocket-propelled grenade launcher at troops as they withdrew.

It said the "great number of casualties" were caused by two explosive devices detonated by Palestinian gunmen in nearby buildings in an attempt to hit Israeli forces.