Palestinians die in hunt for bodies

Twelve Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces searching for the remains of five soldiers killed at the border with Egypt the day before.

The killings bring the death toll to 38 in three days of fighting.

Eleven of the Palestinians died in two helicopter missile attacks in Rafah, and the 12th was shot dead in the frontier town's embattled refugee camp.

The Israeli Army said it had fired at two groups of armed gunmen. Palestinian sources said four of the 11 killed were militants. Another 15 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City in the same period.

Despite the death toll, Palestinian militants in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City claimed victory after Israeli forces finally pulled out at dawn after a 52-hour gun battle.

Hostilities ended when the armed factions handed over the seized remains of the six soldiers killed when their troop carrier was blown up on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has thanked President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt for his Government's role in brokering the handover.

Thousands of Zeitoun residents picked their way past burnt-out cars and ravaged storefronts through rubble, broken glass and thick mud caused by fractured water mains, after emerging from their homes for the first time since Monday night.

As they queued near the devastated centre of the neighbourhood to buy food and medical supplies, crowds of shouting children brandishing plastic jerry cans clambered on to a tanker to get fresh water for their families.

Water and electricity supplies had been cut off by the fighting to most of the area's 8000 homes. The main street, Salahadeen, had become a shooting gallery for Israeli armoured forces and Palestinian gunmen.

The funeral procession of Fauzi al Madhoun, the 33-year-old credited locally with having blown up the Israeli troop carrier, was told: "The children of Zionism are retreating. We did not give back the remains of the bodies until they withdrew from Zeitoun. This is our victory."

As the procession left the Salahadeen mosque with the body of al Madhoun, killed in a helicopter missile attack, balaclava-clad militants fired triumphantly into the air, despite being told, "Don't shoot. We need the bullets for the enemy."

It was obvious Israeli forces had conducted a scorched-earth policy before withdrawing, exploding dozens of charges in the road.

Though supposedly to detonate any still-active explosives planted by Palestinian militants, the charges destroyed eight residential buildings, making 92 people homeless, according to United Nations figures.

Hamis Ashur, a carpenter, said Israeli soldiers had forced his extended family of 45 to 50 people into a single room for 12 hours, after arriving on Tuesday night at the start of a period of continuous shooting.

"I speak Hebrew and I had to ask permission every few minutes for people to go to the bathroom. Children were urinating on the floor. Women were crying, children were crying.

"This has been like an earthquake. This is the first time we have been exposed to such a bitter experience."

IDF Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon insisted yesterday that attempts were being made to minimise civilian casualties, but said: "For as long as there is terrorism in Gaza ... we will need to continue to operate against the terror infrastructure in Gaza on every front."

- INDEPENDENT