ISRAEL: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday praised an Israeli raid that killed 14 Palestinians and wounded 80 and said there would be more operations in the Gaza Strip, but expressed regret for civilian casualties.
Palestinian officials called it a massacre, saying most of the dead and wounded were civilians, including 10 killed by a missile fired into a crowd gathered near a mosque. But Israeli officials said most of those killed were gunmen.
As internal unrest flared in Gaza and fresh violence hit the West Bank, Sharon vowed to keep up pressure on militants, despite US criticism of Monday's attack in Khan Younis at a time when Washington is seeking Arab support for a possible war on Iraq.
The latest cycle of bloodshed and retribution has all but buried a new international peace initiative aimed at ending two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
"I think that the operation was a success," Mr Sharon told reporters in an assessment of the raid. "We have to take into consideration that the Israeli forces are making every effort to contain raids and attacks by terrorist organisations."
"Most of the casualties there were terrorists and are terrorists, but still there were some civilians. Therefore I express my sorrow for that," Mr Sharon said. It was the highest Palestinian death toll in Gaza since July 23rd, when a bomb dropped by an Israeli plane killed 13 civilians as well as its target, Hamas's military commander.
The militant Islamic group Hamas, which has killed scores of Israelis in suicide bombings during an uprising against Israeli occupation, vowed to avenge the Palestinian deaths.
Suspected Palestinian gunmen wounded four Israelis, all members of the same family, in an attack on their car near the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday, Israeli security sources said.
Several Jewish settlers in the divided city attacked Palestinian shopkeepers on news of the shooting. Hospital officials said three schoolgirls and a disabled man were wounded by Israeli tank-fire in Jenin in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have reoccupied most major towns since a spate of suicide bombings in the Jewish state in June.
Hamas supporters in a 1,500-strong funeral procession for four men killed on Monday in fighting between police and Hamas members, threw stun grenades and stones at the main security complex in Gaza City.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres arrived yesterday in Mauritania, a rare ally of Israel among Arab countries. It became only the third Arab League country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999