Five killed in Israeli airstrikes

Israeli troops backed by airstrikes today killed five Palestinians, including two civilians, in an operation against rocket launchers in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and Palestinian medics said.

During the clashes, a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza landed in a northern neighbourhood of the Israeli city of Ashkelon, one of the longest distances the rockets have flown, the Israeli army said. Israel Radio said the distance the rocket flew was about 10 miles. About 120,000 people live in Ashkelon.

The Gaza fighting began after midnight when Israeli forces, including 10 tanks, raided an area east of Khan Younis, sparking exchanges of fire with Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, witnesses said.

When troops became trapped in a house, Israeli aircraft fired at least nine missiles, the witnesses said. Two militants were killed and nine wounded in the airstrikes, doctors said.

Later, an Israeli tank fired a shell at a house, killing three people, including an Islamic Jihad militant, his mother and 19-year-old sister, and wounding six others, the family and doctors said. Palestinian doctors reported a total of 21 injured in the clashes.

The Israeli army said the fighting was in a residential area and troops fired at militants who were shooting at them from houses. The operation was against Palestinian militants involved in launching rockets and mortars towards southern Israel.

The forces demolished one house, a chicken coop and two greenhouses in the fighting, witnesses said.

The fighting came days before US President George W. Bush arrives in the region to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Bush has no plans to visit Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamic militant group Hamas. But persistent violence in the area could overshadow his visit, his first to the region as president.