18 dead in Israeli attack

Israeli helicopters pounded a refugee camp with missiles and machine gun fire today, killing at least 18 Palestinians as troops searched houses in a major military offensive that drew worldwide condemnation.

The United States said it was seeking clarifications from Israel about the operation – the biggest in Gaza in years – which officials said would last at least a week. The European Union sent a senior envoy for talks with Israeli leaders.

The army said most of those killed were gunmen in the Rafah camp.

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 washing from a rooftop.

Trapped Rafah residents 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 42 Palestinians were wounded, including 12 who were in serious 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 earlier this week the army also plans to widen an Israeli patrol road between the camp and Egypt, which would entail razing rows of nearby houses. However, army officials said Tuesday there would be no systematic demolitions.

Last week, Israel destroyed about 100 houses near the patrol road, making more than 1,000 Palestinians homeless and drawing international 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 camp.

Backed by about 70 armoured vehicles, soldiers went house-to-house,

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 an Israeli army position on the sixth floor of the neighbouring building, he 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. The teenagers' bodies were kept in the home for several hours, until an ambulance was able to get through.

The army had no immediate comment on the incident.

In all, 18 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, 10 in two separate missile strikes, and eight by machine gun fire, said Dr Moawiya Hassanain, a senior Palestinian Health Ministry official. A 19th man was killed while handling explosives.

The raid began before dawn with two missile strikes the army said were aimed at gunmen. In one air strike, a missile hit a group of gunmen outside a mosque in Tel Sultan, killing three.

Two more missiles were fired, killing three more people who rushed to help. The mosque caught fire. In another air strike, four Palestinians were killed, all civilians, according to hospital officials.

In all, more than 11,000 Palestinians in Rafah have been made homeless by Israeli demolitions since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000.

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 Hassanain said several ambulances were pinned down in the area of fighting, unable to evacuate wounded to the hospital.

Israeli army chief, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, said Israel has no choice but to act, because Palestinian militants have succeeded in smuggling rocket-propelled grenade launchers into Rafah, with the help of Iran and the Iranian-funded Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon.

Paul Patin, a spokesman for the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, said the United States has asked Israel for clarifications regarding the Rafah operations.

Arab nations asked for a special session of the UN Security Council about the situation in Gaza, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan denounced the Israeli operation. Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, described Israeli actions in Rafah and Gaza as ”war crimes”.

Jordan called on Israel to stop its assault and return to negotiations with the Palestinians.

EU foreign policy representative Javier Solana said the destruction of homes “goes very much against the letter and the spirit of the road map” plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

An EU envoy, Marc Otte, was in Israel for talks with Israeli leaders, carrying a message of “unequivocal condemnation”, his aides said.