Israeli gunfire wounded six children at a school in the Gaza Strip today. Army sources claimed to have fired in retaliation against militants it said had fired mortars at Jewish settlements from the area.
School principal Helen al-Agha said six children, all aged 8, were wounded by shrapnel and taken to hospital at Khan
Younis.
Two days earlier Israeli troops shot dead a 7-year-old girl in the same town following a mortar attack by Palestinian
militants on a nearby settlement which wounded four Israelis, including a 7-year-old boy.
A resurgence of violence in Gaza could threaten efforts to instil calm for a Jan. 9 Palestinian presidential election to
pick a successor for Yasser Arafat. It could also complicate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and wants to leave next year.