Eight die in Gaza fighting

Eight Palestinians, including a toddler, were killed in Gaza today in what was described as the most intense gun battle there in 31 months of fighting.

Israeli troops backed by helicopters surrounded the house of a leading Hamas militant, Yousuf Abu Hein.

They called on his relatives to leave the building but they refused, the Israeli army said.

More than 200 Palestinian gunmen, many in black masks, raced to the scene in Gaza City’s Shijaiyah neighbourhood, triggering a huge firefight.

Heavy firing continued into the afternoon. Among the dead was two-year-old Amer Ayad, killed when a bullet hit his head after shattering a window at his home.

“Is this the new peace President Bush promised?” asked his father Ahmed, a blacksmith. “They wrote the answer using the blood of my son.”

Eight Israeli soldiers were wounded, including one seriously.

The clashes came as the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, held his first Cabinet meeting after taking office yesterday.

As part of the “road map” to peace drawn up by the US, EU, UN and Russia, he must rein in the militants in exchange for Israeli concessions on settlements and a “progressive” pull-out of its soldiers from towns and villages reoccupied during the latest fighting.

Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas will make his job more difficult by breeding Palestinian resentment, his new security chief Mohammed Dahlan said.

The Israeli military says such operations are vital to protect its civilians from Palestinian terror attacks.

Hamas yesterday claimed joint responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed three Israelis outside a bar next door to the US embassy in Tel Aviv.

That attack was carried out by a British militant, Israeli police said, and a second Briton was on the run today after his explosives failed to go off.