Israeli forces kill 6 in Gaza Strip raids

Israeli forces looking for cross-border tunnels raided the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with troops, tanks and aircraft and killed six Palestinians, including two civilians, during clashes with militants.

The 18-hour incursion was one of a series of limited offensives Israel has staged with increased intensity this summer, aiming to neutralize threats posed by Hamas and other Islamic movements without a costly reoccupation of the Palestinian territory.

Palestinian witnesses said about 20 tanks, three bulldozers and two combat helicopters crossed into Gaza from Israel shortly after midnight. Israeli troops went door to door in several villages east of the city of Khan Yunis, took about 100 men between the ages of 16 and 55 into a soccer stadium and transported several dozen of them to Israel for interrogation, the witnesses said.

Hamas said it resisted the raid with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. An Israeli military spokesman said Israeli aircraft struck armed Palestinians in three attacks and ground troops shot a gunman during a clash.

Three Hamas militants were killed, one along with his 60-year-old mother, when Israeli troops shot at their house, a Hamas statement said. Islamic Jihad said one of its militants died in an Israeli airstrike as he was getting out of his car.

The other fatality was a 41-year-old civilian shot by soldiers as he stood on the roof of his house, Palestinian medical workers said.

Hospitals reported 25 Palestinians wounded by gunfire. Israel said one of its soldiers was slightly wounded.

Militants with Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad fire crude Kassam rockets into Israel almost daily. The Israeli military spokesman said the raid was aimed at blunting the rocket fire and finding a suspected network of cross-border tunnels similar to the one militants used last summer to infiltrate Israel and capture an Israeli soldier, who is still missing.

In Jerusalem, meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni cautioned the West against trying to reconcile Hamas and the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which is holding peace talks with Israel. Abbas broke with Hamas in June and dissolved their power-sharing government after the Islamic movement, which Israel and Western countries consider a terrorist organization, seized control of Gaza.

On Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said it would be “impossible to have peace in the Middle East if the Palestinians are divided.”

In Britain, the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of Parliament criticized the government’s policy of isolating Hamas and suggested that Britain hold talks with the movement’s more moderate leaders.

“This is wrong,” Livni told reporters Tuesday, warning that any reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah would “put an end” to Israel’s relations with the Palestinian Authority. “This is a mistake. Big mistake. Huge.”

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), leading a U.S. congressional delegation to the region, said he was confident that the Abbas government would continue to shun Hamas. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad assured him “that Hamas could not be and would not be a partner in moving forward,” the congressman told reporters.

Livni spoke during a news conference with her Japanese counterpart, Taro Aso, who is visiting the region to show Japan’s support for the Abbas government in the form of a $20-million aid package for institution building and humanitarian aid. Like many Western governments, Japan halted aid to the Palestinian Authority last year after Hamas won parliamentary elections and formed the Palestinian government.

At the same time, Aso urged Israel to dismantle unauthorized Jewish settlements and ease military restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement in the West Bank to promote peace efforts.

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boudreaux@latimes.com

Special correspondent Rushdi abu Alouf in Gaza City contributed to this report.