Israel's Gaza offensive kills two children

Israeli helicopters pounded a refugee camp with missiles and machine gun fire today, killing at least 14 Palestinians as troops searched houses in the largest offensive in Gaza in years.

The army said most of those killed in Rafah were gunmen. Palestinians said six civilians were among the dead, including a brother and sister, aged 13 and 16, who were killed by shots from a nearby army position while taking down the laundry.

The death toll was expected to rise, with doctors saying they had reports of two bodies ambulances were unable to collect. In the West Bank, two Palestinians were killed by army fire.

Trapped Rafah residents said they huddled in the innermost rooms of their homes as bullets rained outside. Other residents tried to flee to safer ground since the weekend, thousands of Rafah residents have left their homes.

At least 34 Palestinians were wounded, including eight who were in critical condition.

Israel says it is targeting the Rafah refugee camp, on the border with Egypt, to destroy arms-smuggling tunnels and hunt Palestinian militants. Security officials said the army also plans to widen an Israeli patrol road between the camp and Egypt, which would entail demolishing rows of nearby houses.

Last week, Israel destroyed about 100 houses near the patrol road, making more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless and drawing worldwide condemnation, including rare criticism from the United States.

The first phase of Israel’s offensive, Operation Rainbow, struck the Tel Sultan neighbourhood on the outskirts of the Rafah camp today, about two miles from the patrol road.

Bulldozers began tearing up a road to separate the neighbourhood from the rest of the camp, home to about 90,000 Palestinians, witnesses said. Soldiers backed by about 70 armoured vehicles went house-to-house in the neighbourhood.

Resident Mohammed Shaer, 39, said soldiers locked him, his wife and five children in one room as they searched the building. He said he heard heavy firing outside, and that no one dared approach the windows.

In one incident, 13-year-old Ahmed Mughayer and his 16-year-old sister Asma, were on the roof of their three storey apartment building when they were hit by army fire, said their older brother, Ali. The shots were fired from a Israeli army position on the sixth floor of the neighbouring building, Ali Mughayer said.

He said that when he heard the shots, he raced upstairs and saw his siblings lying on the ground.

Mughayer said that as he tried to pull the bodies, he himself came under fire. “I was crawling on the roof because of the fire, and with great difficulty, I finally got them out,” he said.

Mughayer said the family has called for an ambulance, but that none has been able to get through because of the heavy fighting.

The army had no immediate comment on the incident.

In all, 14 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire – 10 in two separate missile strikes, and four by machine gun fire, hospital officials said. A 15th man was killed while handling explosives.

With the dead streaming to Abu Yousef Al Najar Hospital in Rafah, the morgue filled up and bodies wrapped in white cloth were laid on the ground in a storefront next to a falafel stand.

Palestinian ambulance drivers reported coming under fire, and Dr Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official, said several ambulances were pinned down in the area of fighting, unable to evacuate wounded to the hospital.

Dr. Wael Burdeini said troops besieged a clinic in Tel Sultan, with a tank and an army bulldozer parked outside, and heavy shooting in the area. Burdeini said the clinic’s three ambulances were unable to move.

“Two pregnant women called for urgent medical care, and one of them delivered at home,” Burdeini said.

The Israeli military denied besieging the clinic, saying gunmen were firing from nearby at Israeli troops and drawing return fire.