Israeli troops killed nine Palestinians in clashes in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank on Wednesday, including four gunmen and two civilians as tanks pushed into a central Gaza refugee camp. The Gaza raid was part of a three-week old offensive to recover a captured soldier and halt rocket fire.
Heavy shooting broke out around the Maghazi Camp as Israeli troops crossed the border into the territory before dawn. Three militants from the governing Hamas group were killed, along with one gunman from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, medics and Palestinian security sources said. The two civilians killed included a 16-year-old.
Fifty-two Palestinians were wounded in the clashes, including four hurt by a missile fired from an Israeli drone aircraft. At least 10 of those hurt were children. Some of the wounded were in a critical condition, medics said.
Gunmen said they anticipated Israeli forces would enter their camp after an Israeli tank shell cut electricity off to the camp.
Because of the continued fighting, the United States stepped up the evacuation of Americans in Gaza. Officials said 68 American nationals were pulled out of the strip on July 8 and another 104 on Wednesday.
In the West Bank, troops backed by armoured vehicles surrounded a Palestinian security compound in the city of Nablus and killed three gunmen of Abbas's Fatah faction, medics said. Troops arrested around 100 Palestinian security men.
Israeli army spokesmen confirmed their involvement in the fighting and said five Israeli soldiers were wounded in Gaza.
The army gave few details of the goal of its latest push into Gaza. Maghazi is a district of rundown cement block buildings in the densely populated strip of 1.4 million. Gaza has been under siege since gunmen captured an Israeli soldier in a raid over the border on June 25. Around 100 Palestinians, over half of them militants, have been killed in the offensive. Israeli planes have also bombarded buildings of the Palestinian government, led by Islamist group Hamas, and knocked out bridges, roads and a power plant.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for the capture of Gilad Shalit, 19, by three militant groups, including Hamas's armed wing. Israel has rejected their demand to swap more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for the tank gunner.
At the same time, Israel is fighting Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon after they abducted two soldiers in a cross-border raid last week and killed eight others in ensuing clashes. Israel has said it will continue fighting on both fronts until it gets its soldiers back and removes the threat on its borders. Israel pulled troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.
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