Four in Gaza Die in Clashes With Israeli Forces

Four Palestinians were reported killed in separate clashes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday as the Israeli military broadened its offensive against militants in the strip’s northern section and uncovered a weapons-smuggling tunnel along its southern border with Egypt.

Three people, including a 10-year-old boy, died during fighting near the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical officials said.

Israeli military officials said they were unaware of the boy’s reported death. A military spokesman said troops shot two militants -- both teenagers -- who appeared to be trying to fire a rocket or plant a bomb.

Early in the day, three Palestinians were reported injured in the nearby village of Beit Hanoun by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter. Israeli soldiers moved into the village more than a month ago as part of what military officials said was an effort to stop militants from firing Kassam rockets into Israeli towns.

The crude projectiles have been fired regularly into the southern town of Sderot, just across the border from Gaza. The incursion came after a June 28 attack on Sderot that killed two Israelis, one of them a 4-year-old boy.

This week, the militant group Hamas issued a videotape vowing to escalate the rocket attacks unless Israeli forces left Beit Hanoun. Early today, residents around Beit Hanoun reported that Israeli troops had moved out of the area.

An Israeli military spokesman said there had been a “redeployment” of troops, but that the attempt to stop the rockets would continue.

On Wednesday, Israeli troops expanded their presence from Beit Hanoun to the fringe of the Jabaliya refugee camp. Word of that move prompted the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency, which provides food to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, to remove 20 of its foreign workers from Gaza. The workers were to be shifted to Amman, Jordan.

The agency, which last month moved out 19 other foreign workers, said it also had security concerns because of clashes among Palestinian factions.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian man was reported killed in Rafah, in southern Gaza, during the second day of an Israeli incursion that officials said was aimed at finding tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Israeli soldiers destroyed a 30-foot-deep tunnel under an abandoned building Tuesday night.

Israel says the tunnels from Egypt are a key source of arms and explosives for Palestinian militants. Troops regularly enter Rafah in search of the passages but often do not find any.

An Israeli military spokesman said that troops came under fire from militants in Rafah and returned fire but were unaware whether they hit anyone.

In Washington, the State Department issued a new travel warning urging Americans to leave Gaza immediately and defer travel to Israel and the West Bank because of security concerns stemming from the kidnapping of a U.S. citizen last week.

The American was one of three foreign church volunteers taken hostage in the West Bank city of Nablus. They were released after several hours. Their identities were not disclosed.

A State Department official told Associated Press on Wednesday that the travel warning was directly related to last week’s kidnapping. The last time a warning concerning Israel and the Palestinian territories was issued was April 28.

In Nablus, a Palestinian man was killed and at least three others were wounded amid shooting between Palestinian militants and Israeli troops. Palestinian witnesses said the man was killed by Israeli fire, but the military said its soldiers did not shoot in his direction, according to Israel Radio.

Also Wednesday, the official in charge of Israel’s planned withdrawal from Gaza told a parliamentary committee that the government hoped to ease the way for Jewish residents to leave before Sept. 1, 2005. Officials had previously said they hoped to evacuate all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza, and four in the northern West Bank, by Sept. 30, 2005.

The earlier date would allow people to move to new homes in time for the start of the school year.