Nine Palestinians, soldier killed in Israeli strikes

Israeli forces backed by tanks killed eight Palestinians including at least five militants yesterday and one soldier was also killed in one of the heaviest Israeli raids into the Gaza Strip in months.

Israeli soldiers entered northern Gaza before dawn and fighting quickly erupted around the town of Beit Hanoun, followed by air strikes and tank shelling, witnesses said. They said the army, with air support, had surrounded the town.

The operation was one of the biggest since Israel launched an offensive in Gaza to press for the release of a soldier captured by Palestinian gunmen on June 25 in a cross-border raid and to halt militant rocket fire into the Jewish state.

Moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was waging "all-out war", and called the operation "despicable".

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he hoped the attacks, which he branded a "massacre", would not derail Egyptian-brokered talks trying to arrange a swap of Palestinian prisoners in Israel for the release of the captive soldier.

A delegation from the governing Hamas Islamist movement has been holding negotiations with Egyptian officials in Cairo this week on a possible deal.

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet agreed to continue current Gaza operations and step up pressure on Hamas, a government statement said. It did not elaborate.

Israel Radio said new cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman recommended the army adopt what the radio called the "Russian model in Chechnya", conjuring up images of massive destruction during Russian operations in the volatile Russian region.

Lieberman, a far-right politician who joined the cabinet this week as minister of strategic affairs, said the report was inaccurate. In a statement, he condemned "distorted and tendentious leaks" from the security cabinet meeting.

Israel withdrew its army and Jewish settlers from Gaza last year after a 38-year occupation, but tension began rising along the frontier when Hamas took power after winning January elections. The movement formally seeks to destroy Israel.

Israeli air strikes around Beit Hanoun killed a Palestinian policeman and two gunmen, including one from Hamas, Palestinian security sources said. Three other Hamas gunmen were killed by tank fire and in clashes, witnesses said.

Hospital officials said a civilian was killed in his house by Israeli gunfire and another Palestinian died of wounds sustained in an air strike. The latter's identity was not clear.

Some 60 Palestinians were wounded, including at least two dozen hurt in ground clashes, hospital officials said.

The Israeli soldier, a member of a military canine unit, was killed in a gun battle, the army said. Hamas's armed wing said it killed the soldier and wounded several others.