Israel kills eight Palestinians in raids on militants

5.30am

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Israeli forces killed eight Palestinians today (NZT), most of them during a huge round-up of militants in the West Bank, and launched a new air raid on Gaza in retaliation for Palestinian attacks.

Bombs from F-16 warplanes hit a complex used by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17 guard unit in Gaza City and shrapnel from the blast struck his nearby guest house, which was empty at the time, witnesses and security officials said.

The security building exploded in a red flash of light and sent grey smoke into the night sky as people ran for cover. At least five were injured in the blast and resulting panic.

The army said the raid was in retaliation for Palestinian mortar fire at a Jewish settlement in Gaza earlier in the day.

Early on Friday, Israeli troops and tanks raided four West Bank towns and arrested up to 50 suspected militants. The army called it the largest such operation against "wanted men" since Arafat's Palestinian Authority was created in 1994.

It said it carried out the raids because Arafat had failed to crack down on the militants blamed for attacks on Israelis.

Palestinian security sources said troops killed six members of the Palestinian security services in the town of Salfit. In a separate incident, soldiers shot dead two armed men near the city of Hebron, the army said.

Palestinian sources said one of the men killed in Salfit was on Israel's wanted list and the two killed in Hebron were members of the militant Islamic Jihad group.

"These are war crimes committed by Sharon's government against our people," Palestinian cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said of the Salfit raid, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "Sharon wants to destroy everything."

President Bush issued a new demand for Arafat to use his security forces to arrest militants, saying: "Now is his time to perform.

"The world expects Chairman Arafat to lead, and so do I," Bush told reporters at the White House. "If you want there to be a peace, you must do everything in your power, you must use your security forces, to bring to justice those who murder to keep peace from happening."

Sharon's security cabinet severed contacts with Arafat on Thursday and declared him irrelevant after Palestinian suicide bombings and shooting attacks which killed more than 40 Israelis since US envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in late November. Nearly 30 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in that time.

- REUTERS

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