17 Palestinians, 3 Israeli troops killed in clashes in Gaza Strip

Fighting between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday killed 17 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers, medical officials and the army said.

In the deadliest incident, Israeli strikes killed 12 people and wounded 20 in the Bureij refugee camp, said Muawiya Hassanein, chief of emergency services in the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.

Residents said a helicopter fired at least four missiles, damaging two houses and a mosque. It was unclear how many of the dead were civilians and how many were fighters, and identification was difficult because bodies were dismembered, witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the strike targeted gunmen.

The dead in the camp incident included Fadel Shana, a Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters news agency.

Shana, 23, had stepped out of a sport utility vehicle that carried “TV” markings to film an Israeli tank a few hundred yards away. The last frames from his camera show the tank opening fire in his direction. Two bystanders also were killed in the explosion.

Reuters Editor in Chief David Schlesinger called for an investigation.

An army statement expressed regret over the death but said journalists faced risks in an area of combat against “armed, extreme and dangerous terrorist organizations.”

Earlier, Hamas militants ambushed and killed three Israeli soldiers south of the Nahal Oz fuel terminal on the border.

The soldiers had crossed into the Gaza Strip after spotting armed militants approaching the border fence, and came under fire from another group of gunmen, military officials said.

After the ambush, Israeli army bulldozers razed orchards and at least one house was blown up as tanks and infantry fanned across the area.

In a separate clash, Hamas said that Israeli soldiers backed by helicopters killed four militants from the group on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.

A mosque was badly damaged in the fighting, and residents said it had been struck by the Israelis. The army said gunmen had opened fire from the mosque and that it had been used to store explosives.

A militant was killed in an airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip, medical officials said. The army said it had targeted gunmen in a vehicle.

Militants fired 16 rockets at Israel, but there were no casualties, the army said.

In another development, two Hamas leaders in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar and Said Siyam, traveled to Egypt to meet with Jimmy Carter after Israel barred the former U.S. president from entering the strip.