Six Palestinians killed in Gaza missile strikes

Israel killed four Palestinians in two missile strikes into a Gaza refugee camp yesterday, pursuing what it called a relentless offensive against militants after two suicide bombers struck a strategic Israeli port.

Israeli military action against militants and their leaders unfolded on Tuesday when three helicopter missiles hit the house of an Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza City. Two Palestinians died, one a militant. The commander escaped with minor injuries.

Fighting flared in the Rafah refugee camp after the two air strikes as Israeli troops backed by tanks moved in and demolished several Palestinian houses, coming under rifle fire from bands of militants, witnesses said.

Schools in the densely populated Rafah refugee district sent children home for fear of more air raids. Israeli helicopter gunships were seen in the skies across the Gaza Strip.

Two big detonations shook Gaza City yesterday afternoon, causing panic before it turned out that they were sonic booms caused by overflying Israeli warplanes.

Israel's cabinet on Tuesday decided on sustained military action against Gaza militants, keen to prevent them claiming victory if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon goes ahead with a planned evacuation of Jewish settlements from the seaside territory.

Sunday's suicide attack, which killed 10 Israelis in the port of Ashdod, unnerved Israeli security chiefs because the bombers managed to slip out of fenced-in Gaza territory for the first time in almost three and a half years of conflict.

Palestinian gunmen lay in wait throughout Gaza for what they expected to be widescale Israeli incursions into the strip where 7,500 Jewish settlers live amidst 1.3 million Palestinians.