Gaza rocket hits base in Israel

Palestinian fighters wounded 12 soldiers in a rocket attack on Israel yesterday, defying calls for a ceasefire from Mahmoud Abbas, the frontrunner to succeed Yasser Arafat in an election on Sunday.

Israeli soldiers have killed more than 20 Palestinians in Gaza in the past week, including seven youths aged from 11 to 17 who died on Tuesday from a tank shell which the army said was aimed at a militant rocket crew.

The escalating violence comes despite calls by Mr Abbas for an end to the salvoes from Gaza to allow talks on a state in occupied lands to resume with Israel after four years of a Palestinian uprising.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, raising doubts over new hopes for peace following Mr Arafat's death, said he did not think the Palestinians could achieve anything if violence continued.

The rocket crashed inside the Nahal Oz army base just beyond Gaza's border fence. Hamas militants said they were avenging the killing of the seven Palestinians in a Gaza strawberry farm.

Early yesterday, troops shot dead two Palestinian gunmen who ambushed them at Gaza's Erez border crossing. Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group in the dominant Palestinian faction Fatah, claimed joint responsibility.

Twelve other Palestinians were killed in a three-day Israeli incursion into Khan Younis refugee camp that ended on Sunday.

Palestinian fighters have spurned calls from Mr Abbas, known to many as Abu Mazen, to cease attacks that he says are pointless because they draw heavy Israeli retaliation. Israel has cranked up raids into Gaza to curb the mortar and rocket salvoes.

"Abu Mazen's statements shocked the Palestinian people and contradicted the consensus," said Sami Abu Zuhri of Hamas.

"Resistance will continue until occupation ends." Hamas seeks not just to oust Israel from occupied territories but destroy the Jewish state itself.

In Jerusalem, an Israeli religious party agreed to join Mr Sharon's coalition, clearing the way for a unity government designed to overcome far-right resistance to his plan to withdraw settlers from Gaza later this year.