Israel mounts new air strike in bloody Gaza raid

11.30am

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - An Israeli army helicopter fired a missile into a refugee camp on a third day of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip in which 41 Palestinians have been killed, witnesses said.

No immediate reports of casualties emerged from the attack on Thursday as Israel's military thrust on in its bloodiest Gaza raid in years, defying international fury and a rare US rebuke. Medics say children have been among the raid's victims.

Sporadic gunfire rang out and few people ventured into the dark streets of the Rafah refugee camp overnight after the helicopter strike, the witnesses said. Reports streamed in of more Israeli tanks rolling into Rafah.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the attack.

Tensions rose after a Tel Aviv court convicted Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi of murder, drawing vows of defiance from a firebrand widely seen among Palestinians as a possible successor to President Yasser Arafat.

"So long as occupation continues, the Intifada (uprising) will not stop," Barghouthi, 44, said after the verdict in a case Palestinians condemned as a show trial. "As long as Palestinian mothers are weeping, Israeli mothers will also weep."

US President George W Bush's administration showed its displeasure over the Israeli raid by not vetoing a UN resolution urging an end to the violence, and US officials pressured Israel to get out of Rafah as quickly as possible.

Israeli officials declined to say when the army would leave.

The Jewish state sent troops, backed by helicopters and tanks, storming into Rafah on the border with Egypt after losing 13 soldiers in Gaza ambushes last week. It said the raid was necessary to stop Palestinian militant attacks.

Soldiers have detained dozens of Palestinians and razed homes in Rafah in a hunt to uncover border arms smuggling tunnels they say are used by militants.

Several hundred Israeli peace activists demonstrated outside the Defence Ministry to protest against the military operation, holding signs calling for an immediate withdrawal from Gaza and a stop to the killing.

"Give Israel back its sense of humanity," said leading Israeli dove Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the interim Oslo peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. "The government needs to tell the army 'Come home now'."

Violence in Gaza has risen since Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlers in a plan backed by most Israelis and the United States, but rejected by his right-wing Likud party in a referendum this month.

Militants want to claim as a victory any Israeli pullout from Gaza, but the army is determined to smash them first.

The Tel Aviv court found Barghouthi guilty of masterminding the killings of five people. But it cleared him of involvement in attacks in which more than 20 other people were killed.

Prosecutors asked for five life sentences for Barghouthi, a West Bank leader who had maintained his innocence since his 2002 arrest but expressed pride in resistance to Israeli occupation. The court reconvenes for sentencing on June 6.

Israeli delegation members on their way home from a visit to Jordan said a Jordanian police officer tried to shoot them while they waited to receive their passports at a border terminal.

Shlomo Brom said on Israel Radio the police officer, whose pistol jammed, told him: "All the people around us hate you and you Jews want to kill all the Arabs."

- REUTERS