Israeli shelling kills 6 in camp

RAFAH - Israeli tank shelling killed at least six Palestinians and wounded 50 in a Gaza Strip refugee camp yesterday, after gunmen fired at Army bulldozers, aggravating tensions already close to boiling point.

Palestinian medics said two other people were feared dead in the wreckage of a house destroyed in the Rafah camp.

Witnesses said dismembered bodies of two women, two youths and a 10-year-old girl were pulled from the rubble of homes.

Ambulance workers, ducking at the sound of gunfire, wove frantically through narrow alleys trying to reach the wounded.

A school operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which serves Palestinian refugees, and another run by the Palestinian Authority, were hit by heavy machine gun rounds from Israeli tanks, UNRWA said.

Pupils at the UNRWA preparatory boys' school had to be moved to a basement for safety.

A tank shell struck an annexe housing the school's laboratory as well, but children there had already gone home and there were no injuries. There were no Israeli casualties.

The Army expressed "regret at the loss of innocent lives", but a senior commander said troops had fired in self-defence after being shot at while using bulldozers to build a new watch tower at an Army base in the area.

The violence undermined United States demands to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at talks in Washington for calm in the Middle East as it seeks Arab support for possible war on Iraq.

The violence in Rafah began hours after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat met in Jerusalem, signalling a desire by both sides to at least keep talking.

They discussed more Israeli troop withdrawals from the West Bank, following a pullout from Bethlehem in August, and the release of tax revenue and other funds withheld by Israel since the uprising started.

In Washington, an Israeli official said after Sharon met US President George W. Bush that Israel would not scale back military actions against militants and had not been asked to do so.

- REUTERS

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