.bmp)
.bmp)
GAZA-Israeli tanks and troops backed by helicopter gunships raided the central Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least four Palestinian gunmen, militant sources and hospital officials said.They said Israeli forces operating east of Maghazi refugee camp, a few hundred meters in from Gaza's boundary fence, exchanged fire with groups of gunmen, killing four.Several other Palestinians, including a 7-year-old boy and a Reuters Television sound operator, Nihad Odehtallah, were wounded.The Islamic Jihad militant group and ruling Hamas faction each claimed two of the dead men as their own.An Israeli military spokesman described the raid as "a routine operation against terrorist threats" and said troops shot at least two armed Palestinians.The Israeli military spokesman had no immediate word on the other casualties.Odehtallah was taken to hospital with a bullet wound to his left thigh and was sent home after treatment. "The bullet went in and out.There was no fracture or vascular injury," said a doctor at the facility.Odehtallah said he and other journalists were near an ambulance when gunfire erupted. "I didn't see who shot me. I couldn't identify who was firing," he said.Asked about the incident, a military spokeswoman said: "There were exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and terror groups in the area where the Reuters soundman was (working). We are unable to determine the source of the shooting.We emphasize that it happened in a battle zone."Israel this week stepped up ground and air operations against Islamic Jihad, which has spearheaded cross-border rocket attacks from Gaza.Three rockets were launched against the Israeli border town of Sderot on Thursday, one of them landing 40 meters from a school, police said. Ten pupils were treated for shock.Hamas said it fired 21 mortar bombs at Israeli border posts. There were no reports of casualties from those attacks.As in the days of Noah....
