Two Palestinian boys were killed by fire from Israeli tanks and dozens more youths wounded today, as the army showed no sign of easing its operations in Gaza despite repeated US calls for restraint.
While taking some steps to appease mounting criticism from US President George W. Bush, who is seeking calm on the Israeli-Palestinian front as he prepares for a possible war on Iraq, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remained defiant.
In the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, tanks escorting bulldozers demolishing Palestinian houses along the Israeli-controlled border with Egypt opened fire and killed a Palestinian teenager, medical sources said.
A crowd of angry stone-throwers which gathered following the incident was targeted by another burst of heavy machine-gun fire from the tanks that killed a second boy, the sources said.
About 20 youths were wounded in the incident, 10 of them seriously, only two days after a deadly army raid into the nearby town of Khan Yunis that killed 16 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and drew international condemnation.
Monday's operation which included tanks, bulldozers and helicopters, met with severe reprobation from the White House, where Mr Sharon is due to hold talks next week, and sparked Palestinian fears of a reoccupation of Gaza.
Sharon shrugged off Washington's "deep concern" and said his raids would continue, qualifying Monday's pre-dawn operation as a "success" in hitting militants from the radical Islamic group Hamas in their Khan Yunis bastion.
AFP