Israel kills 12 in Gaza as fighting intensifies

Israeli forces on an offensive in Gaza killed 12 Palestinians in air strikes and clashes with militants yesterday in the worst violence since the Jewish state quit the strip a year ago.

Gunmen also killed an Israeli soldier in northern Gaza, where clashes raged, the army said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered tanks to push deeper into Gaza overnight after militants from the ruling Hamas movement fired rockets into a major Israeli city for the first time.

The incursion expands an offensive that began last week with the main goal of bringing home a captured soldier and piles pressure on the Hamas government, already on the brink of collapse because of a Western aid embargo.

Among the deadliest attacks yesterday, an Israeli air strike near the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza killed six Palestinian civilians, witnesses and medics said.

The army said it had carried out two air strikes against armed militants in the area, killing four gunmen. A spokeswoman said she was unaware of civilian deaths.

Beit Lahiya was also scene of the heaviest ground fighting, where gunmen from various factions fired anti-tank rockets in running battles with Israeli troops who were backed up by tanks and helicopter gunships.

An Israeli battalion commander said his forces had killed seven gunmen with sniper and tank fire. Two soldiers were wounded, the army said.

Beit Lahiya's streets were largely deserted as frightened residents sheltered indoors.

"Israeli tanks are outside our house. Children are screaming and the house is shaking. We are caught in the crossfire," one woman told a local radio station.

Aircraft also launched missile strikes near the southern town of Khan Younis.

The Palestinian death toll is the highest in a single day since Israeli forces killed 16 people in October 2004 in a raid on a Khan Younis refugee camp.

The flare-up in violence has dashed any lingering hopes peace talks might be revived.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz said that although Israel quit Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation, "no one should see that as a guarantee that we cannot reach territory in which we feel we have no choice but to operate".

"We have no intention of sinking into the Gaza swamp."