Israeli troops raid Gaza Strip

Israeli troops poured into the northern &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/hotspots/2002/11/23/39878.html ' target=_blank>Gaza Strip in a bid to halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants who were rebuked for their tactics by presidential election favorite Mahmud Abbas.

Around 50 tanks and armoured vehicles trundled into the Beit Hanun area near the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Palestinian territory, after a new spate of rocket attacks which wounded at least three Israelis.

The latest incursion, in which two &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/main/2002/07/22/32940.html ' target=_blank>Palestinians were wounded, came just hours after the army withdrew from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza where it had been operating to stop militants firing rockets and mortars at nearby Israeli settlements, wrote the Turkish Press.

Earlier in the day -- after a three-day operation in southern Gaza -- Israeli forces pulled out of the Khan Yunis Palestinian refugee camp and redeployed around Gush Katif, a block of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2002/10/09/37939.html ' target=_blank>Jewish settlements between Rafah and Khan Yunis, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said.

On Saturday, in an apparent Qassam misfire, a rocket slammed into a Palestinian home in the northern Gaza village of Beit Lahaya, killing a 10-year-old girl, Palestinian security sources said, reports CNN.