8 gunmen killed in Gaza
8 gunmen were killed in Rafah as IDF conducts house-to-house searches
Two more were killed at daybreak Friday, hospital officials said, apparently by a tank shell fired at their house. Another was seriously wounded in the shelling, they said.
The military said an aircraft attacked two armed Palestinians.
The army said 15 terrorists were killed and 30 were injured in the Rafah area since Thursday.
Dozens of Israeli tanks held positions Thursday in the southern the Gaza Strip, and aircraft fired missiles in heavy fighting that mirrored the Israeli offensive against Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Palestinian officials said an 8-year-old boy was among those killed in the offensive.
Despite Israeli claims that they were pulling out of the territory, residents reported 12 Palestinians were arrested in house-to-house pre-dawn searches, and Israeli forces were preparing to destroy a house.
Israeli aircraft also hit two houses in Gaza City with missiles early Friday. Residents said the military warned occupants to leave before the attacks, and no one was hurt.
'Gaza tragedy forgotten'
The United Nations said Thursday it was concerned that "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten." It called on both Israel and the Palestinian terrorists to recognize their obligations to protect civilians during hostilities, but singled out Israel for criticism.
"The shelling of sites with alleged military significance that result invariably in the killing of civilians, among them an increasing number of children, cannot be justified," the UN said in a statement. "The disproportionate shelling by the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) must stop."
The UN said Israel fired an average of 200-250 artillery shells per day into Gaza, and has killed 175 Palestinians since fighting began more than a month ago. The statement also called on Palestinian terrorists, who fire an average of 8-9 rockets into Israel each day, to stop.
Fighting on two fronts Thursday, against Islamic terrorists in Gaza and against Hizbullah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, Israel had one of its heaviest days of fighting since Hamas-linked terrorists captured a soldier from an Israeli army post near the Gaza frontier more than a month ago.
As the tanks took up positions, Israeli aircraft fired missiles at groups of gunmen, killing four. The strikes wounded 26 Palestinians, at least 10 of them terrorists, security and hospital officials said.
Forces later fired a tank shell at residents gathering in the area after daybreak, killing an 8-year-old boy and wounding three people, including a 4-year-old girl, hospital and security officials said. The bodies of three more dead people were brought to the hospital early Thursday, but they were not believed to be terrorists, medics said.
Seventy-five families, comprising 475 people, fled the combat area to a school run by the United Nations Works and Relief Agency-- the third time in a month the school had been opened to refugees from the fighting, said Khaled Ashour, UNWRA's area operations assistant.
In addition to the deadly fighting, the UN said Israel was creating a situation where Gaza's 1.4 million people faced "a sharp decline in the humanitarian situation."
It criticized Israel for bombing Gaza's only power plant, closing border crossings, blocking access to ports and destroying orchards, bringing much of the coastal strip's economic activity to a halt and "harming the functioning of the entire health system."
'Mashaal a gambler'
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after a June 25 cross-border raid by Hamas-linked terrorists who tunneled into Israel and attacked an army post, killing two soldiers and capturing a third. Israel has demanded the release of the soldier and an end to the firing of homemade rockets at Israel by Gaza terrorists.
Israeli ground forces have moved in and out of several parts of the territory regularly since then, confronting armed terrorists and leaving behind considerable destruction.
Flyers dropped in Gaza by the Israeli military on Thursday portrayed the exiled political leader of Hamas, Khaled Mashaal, as a gambler.
A cartoon drawing showed Mashaal holding three cards reading "security," "prosperity" and "future" with a message saying he was "gambling with the future of Palestine and bringing disappointment, despair and destruction" to Palestinians.
