Three Palestinians killed in Gaza incursion

Three Palestinians were killed today as Israeli forces raided a northern Gaza town in one of their biggest operations in recent months.

Two gunmen and a 12-year-old boy died. Palestinian doctors said the boy was left bleeding for three hours as Israeli troops stopped ambulances from reaching the scene.

“I don’t know any report like this,” Israeli army division commander Col Yoel Strik said, referring to the circumstances surrounding the boy’s death. In the past, troops have kept ambulances out of combat zones.

The violence came only two days before the first Israeli-Palestinian summit in nearly three years.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is due to hold talks with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday night.

On the agenda is an international peace plan called the “road map,” a three year, three stage blueprint beginning with a halt to 31 months of Mideast violence and leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel insists that before it makes any peace moves, the Palestinians must crack down on violent groups responsible for attacks on Israelis.

But one senior Palestinian official has said the new Palestinian government headed by Abbas would not move against the militants unless Israel first formally accepts the “road map” plan.

Israel has presented 15 objections to the plan. Sharon is to discuss the points with US President George Bush in talks next week in Washington.

Today’s army raid, which came in response to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, targeted the town of Beit Hanoun.

Today is “Naqba Day,” when Palestinians mark the anniversary of their displacement that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Naqba is Arabic for “catastrophe”.