Three Palestinians killed in Gaza Strip offensive

Israeli air and ground forces killed three Palestinians today during the second day of a raid against militants in a Gaza refugee camp, and the army dropped leaflets in Gaza City warning residents that it will attack homes hiding militant weapons.

Military officials said the army is adopting a new policy of attacking homes in civilian areas where weapons, such as the home-made rockets routinely fired into Israel, are secretly stored.

The Arabic leaflets dropped over Gaza City warned that ”anyone who has, or is keeping an arsenal, ammunitions or weapons in their house must destroy it or they will face dangerous consequences.”

The Israeli offensive began after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a June 25 cross-border raid.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the violence, the UN reported.

Many of the victims were gunmen, but at least 16 were minors.

Israeli forces have mostly attacked government compounds and open areas militants use to fire rockets toward Israel.

The offensive has continued even as Israel waged a new campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which began July 12 after guerrillas crossed the border and captured two soldiers.

Today Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes against Palestinian militants in the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza, the army said.

Two militants were killed and at least 15 people, many of them civilians, were wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.

Earlier a Palestinian teenager was killed in Mughazi as militants and troops exchanged fire, doctors said.

A 10-year-old Palestinian girl also died today of wounds who was wounded in an airstrike yesterday, doctors said.

Nine people, eight of them militants, were killed in the area in yesterday’s fighting.

Israeli forces also fought with Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus, where a stand-off between troops and militants pressed into a second day. Troops and tanks surrounded a security compound where the militants were holed up.

Tanks fired five shells at the buildings as part of attempts to destroy them and force the militants inside to surrender. Israeli troops fired steel-coated rubber bullets at protesting Palestinians, injuring five, one seriously, Palestinian medics said.

About 4,000 Palestinians demonstrated in Nablus in support of Hezbollah in the fighting in Lebanon, calling on the militia’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to attack Israel with rockets.

“Nasrallah, our dearest, strike, strike Tel Aviv,” the Palestinians shouted.