MIDDLE EAST: At least 16 Palestinians were killed yesterday by Israeli forces in Gaza, including six militants who died in two separate air strikes last night in the northern part of the Strip.
Also among the dead were two women who were part of a crowd of women that headed for a mosque in the northern town of Beit Hanoun earlier in the day to help militants holed up there escape from Israeli troops.
Soldiers pushed into Beit Hanoun on Wednesday as part of Israel's latest bid to stymie rocket fire at towns in southern Israel.
The mosque was besieged on Thursday after the army discovered that dozens of militants, mostly from Hamas, had holed up inside. As troops and gunmen traded fire, an Israeli military bulldozer demolished one of the outer walls of the mosque and soldiers used smoke and stun grenades to try to force the militants to surrender.
With some 200 women flocking to the mosque yesterday morning to act as human shields, the gunmen were able to use the demonstration as cover and slip away. It appeared that a few had disguised themselves as women.
The Israeli military said some of the gunmen had escaped in ambulances belonging to the Red Cross.
Palestinian sources said the two women were killed, and dozens injured, when Israeli troops fired toward the demonstration. The army said that the gunmen were able to escape because troops chose not to shoot into the crowd.
Five militants were killed overnight on Thursday, four in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, and another in Beit Hanoun. Palestinians also reported that a four-year-old boy and a 15-year-old youth were killed in Beit Hanoun. Two Palestinians were also killed yesterday in clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank.
Palestinian officials have reported 30 people killed, most of them armed men, and at least 150 injured since the start of the Israeli operation on Wednesday.
The Israeli military, which has codenamed the operation "Autumn Clouds", has put the number of dead at between 30 and 40, the majority of them gunmen. One Israeli soldier has been killed in the fighting.
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said he "saluted the women of Palestine" who had broken the siege on the mosque. He called on UN secretary general Kofi Annan "to come here and see the massacre". The operation has so far failed to stop the rocket fire into southern Israel, with militants yesterday launching five of the rudimentary missiles, four of which landed in open areas and one in the town of Sderot. There were no injuries.
Close to 300 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a series of raids into Gaza after an Israeli soldier was abducted by militants in late June. Cpl Gilad Shalit is still being held captive in the Strip. According to recent reports, Hamas is demanding the release of 300-400 Palestinian women and minors in Israeli jails prior to the release of Cpl Shalit.
The fighting in Gaza also comes as President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the more moderate Fatah movement, is trying to forge a national unity government with Hamas.
Mr Abbas hinted on Thursday that if an agreement on a unity government is not reached within two weeks, he will precipitate new elections.