Five Israeli troops killed in second Gaza ambush

8.15am

GAZA - Palestinian militants blew up an armoured vehicle killing five Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, witnesses said, in the second deadly ambush against the Middle East's strongest army in as many days.

The al-Arabiya satellite television station reported six Israeli soldiers were killed in Rafah. The Israeli army confirmed one of its armoured vehicles was hit by an explosion and reported casualties, without elaborating.

Israeli helicopters then fired two missiles into the fringes of Rafah's refugee camp abutting the "no-man's-land" strip along the border with Egypt where the military vehicle was operating.

There was no word on the result. But Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks were pushing inside the camp, sending dozens of fearful residents fleeing for fear of an assault.

The Rafah ambush occurred as Israeli forces were blasting their way into buildings in Gaza City in the north of the territory in a hunt for remains of six comrades killed during a major raid when a troop carrier was torn apart by a land mine.

The new spiral of lethal violence since Tuesday intensified debate between proponents and opponents of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate settlers from Gaza, now stalled by rightist hardliners in Sharon's own Likud party.

Polls show most Israelis see Gaza as a liability that should be abandoned. Sharon vows to pursue his plan despite its defeat in a May 2 Likud vote, but wants to pummel militant groups into paralysis before a pullout to prevent them claiming a victory.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the Rafah ambush, another big blow to the Israeli military in occupied lands 24 hours after it suffered its deadliest ambush in 18 months.

Fighters for Islamic Jihad, involved in both assaults, said by telephone from Rafah that they used an anti-tank rocket and a large bomb laid in the vehicle's path to destroy it.

Israel's Channel 2 television aired footage of Palestinian children holding up pieces of the vehicle, reported by local media to be either an armoured bulldozer or a troop carrier.

A group statement said the ambush was meant to avenge Israel's killings of some of its leaders as well as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the largest militant movement Hamas.

"What can I tell you? We're extremely happy, like never before," an Islamic Jihad activist said of the two ambushes, reminiscent of tactics used by Hizbollah guerrillas that eventually ended Israel's occupation of south Lebanon in 2000.

Rafah has been scarred by many battles between the army and militants involved in a 3 1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising launched in territories Israel took in the 1967 Middle East war.

Earlier in the day, Palestinian security sources said militants had agreed to turn over the remains of the six soldiers killed in Gaza City if Israeli forces withdrew first. They initially demanded Israel free Palestinian prisoners too.

But Israel said troops would stay put until the bodies were recovered for a proper burial according to Jewish tradition and repeated it would do no deals with "terrorists".

Army Radio said most of the remains had been found by mid-evening and the Israeli forces might withdraw shortly.

The army's sweep into Gaza City on Tuesday to raze militant weapons workshops went awry when a troop carrier ran over a land-mine and erupted, hurling the six soldiers' remains hundreds of metres in all directions.

Militants hindered the house-by-house search with small arms and rocket fire. Israeli helicopters used missiles in response, killing three Hamas men and wounding 13 civilians. The army said it targeted militants planting more explosives.

Two other Palestinians were shot dead during street clashes, one of them a civilian, local medics said.

Israeli opposition politicians said the two ambushes strengthened arguments for abandoning Gaza, where armoured forces are bogged down guarding 7500 settlers ringed by 1.2 million Palestinians.

"To remain in Gaza will be tragic. Another Lebanon situation is arising there. I hope this will push our leaders to pull us out," said Yossi Sarid, head of the left-wing Meretz party.

Right-wingers countered that "fleeing" from Gaza would only embolden Islamist militants sworn to destroying Israel itself.

Sharon's unilateral "Disengagement Plan", which would also cement Israel's hold on larger settlements in the West Bank, has eclipsed a US-backed peace "road map" promising Palestinians a viable state but derailed by further violence on both sides.

- REUTERS